On Friday, a mass
shooting occurred in Newtown, Connecticut. It began Friday morning when twenty year old Adam Lanza shot and killed his mother, Nancy, fifty-two, at their home, with one of her own guns.
He then took her car, as well as at least three of her five guns, to Sandy Hook Elementary. The K-4 school has about seven hundred students, from ages five to ten.
Leaving a rifle in the car, dressed in all black fatigues and wearing a bullet proof vest, he went to the building with two pistols. He forced his way through the door, by breaking the glass at about 9:30 EST.
Seeing several administrators come out of a meeting, he ran towards them, gunning at least two of them down, as she tried to stop him. They were the forty-seven year old school principal Dawn Hochsprung and fifty-six year old Mary Sherlach, the school psychologist.
One employee ran down the halls, warning people that there was a gunman, as they went. Another triggered the PA system allowing the entire school to hear gunshots, warning them of what was happening. Yet another staff member called 911, telling the police that there was a shooting. Lanza continued into two classrooms, shooting as he went.
His bullets would kill a total of twenty children and six adults, at the school. One of those victims was twenty-seven year old Victoria Soto, a teacher, who had just managed to hide sixteen kids in a closet. Another teacher, Lauren Rousseau, thirty, was among the dead. All of the children killed, were first graders, between the ages of six and seven. Three of whom were Ana Greene, Grace McDonnell, and Emilie Parker, all of whom were six.
At 9:36 police received a call, on their radios, that there was a shooting taking place at the school. Then all went silent at 9:38 and no more shots were heard. The first officers on the scene requested that the state police be sent, and then made their way into building, seeking the shooter. Some of the officers broke windows, as they came in from all directions. Others fanned out and searched the woods and nearby buildings and cars for a possible second shooter.
As the officers went through the school, they pushed badges under doors to let teachers know that they were the good guys. Students were evacuated to the nearby fire house, and kept there til parents could come pick them up. By the time police were done searching, they'd found the body of the shooter, in the school, after he had shot himself.
Originally it had been released that Nancy Lanza worked at the school, as a teacher. However that is now under question, and it is not clear what her relationship with the school was. Nor have police been able to figure out a motive for his actions, especially those at the school.
The medical examiners have said that each victim was shot multiple times. Only one of the people shot survived the shooting, and police are hoping to talk to them, to see what light they can shed on the incident.
Police are beginning to share the names of the victims. We've shared the ones we've received, so far.
