28 slain in school shooting
Gunman kills his mother at home, later opens fire in classrooms: sources WILLIAM MARSDEN, DOUGLAS QUAN AND FRANK APPLEYARD
NEWTOWN, CONN. – As gunshots echoed through an elementary school in Connecticut on Friday, children huddled in the corners and closets where desperate teachers had tried to hide them from the gunman who had invaded their school.
By the time it was over, 28 people, including 20 children, the gunman and his own mother were dead, and a nation was left struggling to put some kind of context to its latest school massacre.
Hours after the tragedy, U.S. President Barack Obama struggled to maintain his composure as he tried to offer comfort to those reeling from the events at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., a school whose name now takes its place among such institutions as Columbine High School and Virginia Tech.
“Our hearts are broken today,” Obama said, his voice breaking. “The majority of those who died today were children, beautiful little kids between the ages of five and 10 years old.
“We’ve endured too many of these tragedies in the last few years.”
The perpetrator this time was 20-year-old Adam Lanza, who authorities say killed his mother, Nancy Lanza, before driving to the facility in her car with an arsenal that is now believed to have included at least five guns.
Reports in the wake of the shooting said Lanza suffered from some type of personality disorder.
After the bloodshed, Lanza took his own life. One person was injured.
One of the victims was a former Winnipeg girl, the Winnipeg Free Press reported, identifying her as the six-year-old daughter of former University of Manitoba jazz instructor Jimmy Greene. Her name was Ana.
Diane Licata, the mother of another child at the school, told Postmedia News her six-year-old son witnessed the gunman shoot his firstgrade teacher.
“Our son did see him shoot his teacher,” she said Friday night. “He’s traumatized. He’s six years old. We’re just going to rally around him and make him whole again.”
After the shooting, panicked parents raced to the school, looking for their children. The youngsters, many in their first months of kindergarten and none above the fourth grade, were told by police to close their eyes as they were led from the building. Schoolchildren — some crying, others looking frightened — were escorted through a parking lot in a line, hands on each other’s shoulders.
It is America’s second-deadliest school shooting — exceeded only by the Virginia Tech massacre that left 33 people dead in 2007. The magnitude of Friday’s rampage was amplified by the age of the children murdered.
Authorities gave no details on exactly how the attack unfolded, but police radio traffic indicated the shooting lasted only a few minutes. State police Lt. Paul Vance said officers arrived quickly, immediately entered the school, searched it and found Lanza dead.
A law enforcement official speaking on condition of anonymity said investigators believe Lanza attended the school several years ago, but appeared to have no recent connection to the place.
At least one parent said Lanza’s mother was a substitute teacher there. But her name did not appear on a staff list. And the law enforcement official said investigators were unable to establish any connection so far between her and the school.
Lanza’s older brother, 24-year-old Ryan, of Hoboken, N.J., was being questioned, but a law enforcement official said he was not believed to have had a role in the rampage. Investigators were searching his computers and phone records, but he told law enforcement he had not been in touch with his brother since about 2010.