A heavily armed gunman opened fire inside a Connecticut elementary
school on Friday, killing 26 people, including 20 children, in the
latest in a series of shooting rampages across the United States this
year, US media reported.
The gunman was dead inside Sandy Hook Elementary
By UN News Service
14 November 2012
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School in Newtown, Connecticut, state police Lieutenant Paul Vance told a news conference.
Vance said the gunman killed 18 children and six adults at the school
and two wounded children died later in the hospital. Another person
connected to the suspect was found dead at a house in Newtown, bringing
the death toll to 28.
One of the dead was the shooter’s mother, a teacher at the school,
The New York Times reported, citing a law enforcement official. The New
York Times also reported that the gunman killed himself at the scene.
CNN reported that an official said there was an additional death –
the brother of the suspected gunman in New Jersey – but this was not The suspected gunman entered the school as children were gathered in
their classrooms for morning meeting. He was armed with four weapons and
wore a bullet-proof vest, WABC reported.
If confirmed, it would be one of the worst mass shootings in US
history. The holiday season tragedy was the second shooting rampage in
the United States this week and was certain to revive a debate about US
gun laws.
President Barack Obama, wiping away tears and pausing to collect his
emotions, mourned the “beautiful little kids between the ages of 5 and
10 years old” who were killed.
“As a country we have been through this too many times,” Obama said, ticking off a list of recent shootings.
“We’re going to have to come together and take meaningful action to
prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of the politics,” Obama
said in apparent reference to the influence of the National Rifle
Association over members of Congress.
Obama remains committed to trying to renew a ban on assault weapons, White House spokesman Jay Carney said.
Witnesses reported hearing dozens of shots with some saying as many as 100 were fired.
Another person was being held in police custody after he was detained
in the woods near the school wearing camouflage pants, CBS reported.
Bloodied children exit school
Sandy Hook Elementary School teaches children from kindergarten through fourth grade – roughly ages 5 to 10.
“It was horrendous,” said parent Brenda Lebinski, who rushed to the
school where her daughter is in the third grade. “Everyone was in
hysterics – parents, students. There were kids coming out of the school
bloodied. I don’t know if they were shot, but they were bloodied.”
Television images showed police and ambulances at the scene, and
parents rushing toward the school. Parents were seen reuniting with
their children and taking them home.
“This is going to be bad,” a state official told Reuters, requesting
anonymity because the scope of the tragedy remained uncertain.
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| A woman waits to hear about her sister, a teacher, following a shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. AP photo |
Lebinski said a mother who was at the school during the shooting told
her a “masked man” entered the principal’s office and may have shot the
principal. Lebinski, who is friends with the mother who was at the
school, said the principal was “severely injured.”
Lebinski’s daughter’s teacher “immediately locked the door to the classroom and put all the kids in the corner of the room.”
Murphy has a friend with a daughter in Sandy Hook, and the daughter
is OK. She did get an automated call from the school department this
morning saying there was a “possible shooting” at the elementary school
and that all schools were on lockdown.
The Sandy Hook tragedy would be the deadliest elementary school shooting in US history.
The worst US high school shooting happened in 1999 when two students,
Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, went on a rampage at Columbine High
School in Littleton, Colorado, killing 12 students and a teacher before
turning their guns on themselves.
In 2007, 32 people were killed at Virginia Tech university in the deadliest act of gun violence in US history.
In another notorious school shooting outside of the United States, in
1996 a gunman opened fire in an elementary school in Dunblane,
Scotland, and killed 16 children and an adult before killing himself.
