SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) --A gunman killed 26 people, including 20 young children, at a U.S. school where his mother worked Friday morning in one of the worst school shootings in the country's history.
Frightened students who were rushed from the building by police were told to close their eyes.
"Our hearts are broken today," President Barack Obama said, wiping his eyes during brief comments to reporters in one of the most emotional public moments of his presidency. He said the children killed were five to 10 years old. He said the nation had been "through this too many times" with recent mass shootings and has to come together to take meaningful action, "regardless of the politics."
A law enforcement official said the suspect, 24-year-old Ryan Lanza, was dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, and that his younger brother was being held for questioning as a possible second shooter. The law enforcement official said the boys' mother, Nancy Lanza, worked at the school as a teacher and was presumed dead.
State police said 18 children were found dead at the school and two later were declared dead, and six adults were found dead at the scene. They said the shootings occurred in one section of the school but did not give details.
Police also said another person was dead at a second scene. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said someone who lived with the gunman died.
Robert Licata said his six-year-old son was in class when the gunman burst in and shot the teacher.
"That's when my son grabbed a bunch of his friends and ran out the door," he said. "He was very brave. He waited for his friends."
Licata said the shooter didn't say a word.
The law enforcement official also said Ryan Lanza's girlfriend and another friend were missing in New Jersey. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because the source was not authorized to speak on the record about the developing criminal investigation.
According to the official, the suspect drove to the scene in his mother's car. Three guns were found — a Glock and a Sig Sauer, both pistols — and a .223-calibre rifle. The rifle was recovered from the back of a car at the school, and the two pistols were recovered from inside the school.
State police said only students and school staff were killed, but they refused to say how people were dead. Police said the scene was secure.
The attack at Sandy Hook Elementary School, just two weeks before Christmas, was the latest of several mass shootings in the U.S. this year, and it approached the deadly scope of the Virginia Tech university massacre in 2007 that left 32 dead.
This time, many victims were young children. Photos from the scene showed students, some of them crying, being escorted by adults through a parking lot in a line, hands on each other's shoulders.
Children told their parents they had heard bangs and, at one point, a scream over the intercom.
The shooting shocked a small, tranquil community in one of the wealthiest counties in the U.S., about 60 miles northeast of New York City. The last news items posted before the shooting on the website of the tiny newspaper, The Newtown Bee, lamented cracked headstones at a local cemetery and asked residents to "share 2012 memories."
Anguished parents came running Friday morning when they heard the news.
Stephen Delgiadice said his eight-year-old daughter heard two big bangs, and teachers told her to get in a corner. His daughter was fine.
"It's alarming, especially in Newtown, Connecticut, which we always thought was the safest place in America," he said.
Mergim Bajraliu, 17, heard the gunshots echo from his home and raced to check on his nine-year-old sister at the school. He said his sister, who was fine, heard a scream come over the intercom at one point. He said teachers were shaking and crying as they came out of the building."Everyone was just traumatized," he said.
Richard Wilford said his seven-year-old son, Richie, said he heard a noise that "sounded like what he described as cans falling."
The boy told him a teacher went out to check on the noise, came back in, locked the door and had the kids huddle up in the corner until police arrived.
"There's no words," Wilford said. "It's sheer terror, a sense of imminent danger, to get to your child and be there to protect him."
Melissa Makris said her 10-year-old son, Philip, saw what looked like a body under a blanket as he fled the school.
Already this year, a gunman killed 12 people at a Colorado theatre, and another gunman killed six people before killing himself at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin.
"We have endured too many of these tragedies," Obama said. He spoke in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room, named in honour of the former White House press secretary who was shot and disabled in the assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan in 1981. Brady and his wife, Sarah, have become activists for gun control measures.
"If now is not the time to have a serious discussion about gun control and the epidemic of gun violence plaguing our society, I don't know when is," one member of Congress, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, said in a statement.
SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) --A gunman killed 26 people, including 20 young children, at a U.S. school where his mother worked Friday morning in one of the worst school shootings in the country's history.
Frightened students who were rushed from the building by police were told to close their eyes.
"Our hearts are broken today," President Barack Obama said, wiping his eyes during brief comments to reporters in one of the most emotional public moments of his presidency. He said the children killed were five to 10 years old. He said the nation had been "through this too many times" with recent mass shootings and has to come together to take meaningful action, "regardless of the politics."
A law enforcement official said the suspect, 24-year-old Ryan Lanza, was dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, and that his younger brother was being held for questioning as a possible second shooter. The law enforcement official said the boys' mother, Nancy Lanza, worked at the school as a teacher and was presumed dead.
State police said 18 children were found dead at the school and two later were declared dead, and six adults were found dead at the scene. They said the shootings occurred in one section of the school but did not give details.
Police also said another person was dead at a second scene. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said someone who lived with the gunman died.
Robert Licata said his six-year-old son was in class when the gunman burst in and shot the teacher.
"That's when my son grabbed a bunch of his friends and ran out the door," he said. "He was very brave. He waited for his friends."
Licata said the shooter didn't say a word.
The law enforcement official also said Ryan Lanza's girlfriend and another friend were missing in New Jersey. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because the source was not authorized to speak on the record about the developing criminal investigation.
According to the official, the suspect drove to the scene in his mother's car. Three guns were found — a Glock and a Sig Sauer, both pistols — and a .223-calibre rifle. The rifle was recovered from the back of a car at the school, and the two pistols were recovered from inside the school.
State police said only students and school staff were killed, but they refused to say how people were dead. Police said the scene was secure.
The attack at Sandy Hook Elementary School, just two weeks before Christmas, was the latest of several mass shootings in the U.S. this year, and it approached the deadly scope of the Virginia Tech university massacre in 2007 that left 32 dead.
This time, many victims were young children. Photos from the scene showed students, some of them crying, being escorted by adults through a parking lot in a line, hands on each other's shoulders.
Children told their parents they had heard bangs and, at one point, a scream over the intercom.
The shooting shocked a small, tranquil community in one of the wealthiest counties in the U.S., about 60 miles northeast of New York City. The last news items posted before the shooting on the website of the tiny newspaper, The Newtown Bee, lamented cracked headstones at a local cemetery and asked residents to "share 2012 memories."
Anguished parents came running Friday morning when they heard the news.
Stephen Delgiadice said his eight-year-old daughter heard two big bangs, and teachers told her to get in a corner. His daughter was fine.
"It's alarming, especially in Newtown, Connecticut, which we always thought was the safest place in America," he said.
Mergim Bajraliu, 17, heard the gunshots echo from his home and raced to check on his nine-year-old sister at the school. He said his sister, who was fine, heard a scream come over the intercom at one point. He said teachers were shaking and crying as they came out of the building."Everyone was just traumatized," he said.
Richard Wilford said his seven-year-old son, Richie, said he heard a noise that "sounded like what he described as cans falling."
The boy told him a teacher went out to check on the noise, came back in, locked the door and had the kids huddle up in the corner until police arrived.
"There's no words," Wilford said. "It's sheer terror, a sense of imminent danger, to get to your child and be there to protect him."
Melissa Makris said her 10-year-old son, Philip, saw what looked like a body under a blanket as he fled the school.
Already this year, a gunman killed 12 people at a Colorado theatre, and another gunman killed six people before killing himself at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin.
"We have endured too many of these tragedies," Obama said. He spoke in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room, named in honour of the former White House press secretary who was shot and disabled in the assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan in 1981. Brady and his wife, Sarah, have become activists for gun control measures.
"If now is not the time to have a serious discussion about gun control and the epidemic of gun violence plaguing our society, I don't know when is," one member of Congress, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, said in a statement.
