12/15/2012
23.40 (18.40) A vigil is about to start in Newtown for Vicki Soto, the young teacher who died shielding her students from the gunman. Friends and family are going to wear green, her favourite colour, and sing as they remember her. Her black labrador has apparently been wandering around her apartment, waiting for her owner to come home.
23.30 (18.30) Amazing to think that the killer is from a law enforcement family.
23.10 (18.10) James Champion, the brother of Nancy Lanza has put out at statement saying the "whole family is traumatised" by his nephew's killing spree. Champion is a police officer in New Hampshire and their father is a retired officer.
22.30 (17.30) Robbie Parker, the father of six-year-old Emilie who died yesterday, is speaking of his family's devastation.
He begins by expressing his sympathy for all the families "this includes the family of the shooter. I can't imagine how hard it this experience must be for you and I want you to know that our love and our support goes out to you as well".
As the deep pain begins to settle into our hearts, we find comfort reflecting on the incredible person that Emily was and how many lives she was able to touch in her short time on earth.
He describes how little Emilie was a serial maker of cards and "always carried around her markers and pencils" to make notes for anyone who was looking sad. Mr Parker was teaching his daughter Portuguese and says their last conversation on Friday morning was in Portuguese.
He says the killer acted with "free agency" that was given by God and that he can't feel anger towards the gunman.
She was the type of person who could just light up a room. She always had a kind word to say about anybody.
The family only moved to Newtown eight months ago.
22.06 (17.06) Governor Malloy has just addressed the people of Connecticut, saying not is a time for "love, courage and compassion".
When tragedies like this take place people often look for answers and explanations of this could have happened but the sad truth is there are no answers. No good ones, anyway.
He says "there will be a time soon" for a public debate about guns.
21.45 (16.45) Sandy Hook Elementary School killer Adam Lanza was taught how to shoot by the mother he murdered, Robert Mendick reports.
Nancy Lanza, 52, was “a big, big gun fan” who went target shooting with her children, according to friends.
"She said she would often go target shooting with her kids," Dan Holmes, owner of the landscaping firm Holmes Fine Gardens, told Reuters.
He recalled that she once showed him a 'high-end rifle' that she had purchased.
'She was very proud of it,' he told the New York Daily News. 'She loved her guns.”
Lanza, 20, killed his mother at the home they shared, shooting her in the face with her own gun, before driving three miles to the school in Newtown, Connecticut.
21.15 (16.15) Ryan Lanza, the elder brother of the gunman, told police he had not been in touch with his brother since 2010, according to the Associated Press. It's not clear whether he's still in police custody in New Jersey. He seems to have lost touch with a lot of the people close to him in recent years:
Joshua Milas, who graduated from Newtown High in 2009 and belonged to the school technology club with him, said that [Adam] Lanza was generally a happy person but that he hadn't seen him in a few years.
"We would hang out, and he was a good kid. He was smart," Joshua Milas said. "He was probably one of the smartest kids I know. He was probably a genius."
21.05 (16.05) Police are now talking down earlier reports that Lanza had been involved in an altercation with staff at the school on the day before the killing.
20.55 (15.55) He says all the victims he knows of were killed with the Bushmaster .223, a civilian version of the military's M-16 rifle. Although he hasn't examined Lanza's body he says he is fairly confident the gunman killed himself with one of the two pistols.
Dr Carver says the bodies of the 26 victims are all ready to be released and that parents were shown pictures, rather being taken to see the actual bodies, as they identified them. "It's easier on the families when you do that," he said.
20.45 (15.45) Dr H Wayne Carver, the chief medical examiner for the state of Connecticut, has just given an update on the forensic investigation, saying he has completed post-mortems on the 26 victims in the school. "I believe that everybody was hit more than once," he said, adding that many of the bullets were lodged in the bodies.
The post-mortems on Lanza and his mother will be completed tomorrow.
20.25 (15.25) Carlee Soto, whose sister Vicki was among the six adults killed at Sandy Hook, has been tweeting her grief.
Vicki Soto is believed to have been the last person to die, killed as she was shielding her class of six-year-olds. After shooting her, Lanza reportedly turned the gun on himself.
19.52 (14.52) Inside the school the forensic work is still going on but all 27 bodies have been removed. Lanza had three guns on him at the time of his death - two pistols and a civilian version of an M16 - and police say they know which weapon he used to kill himself with but are not yet disclosing that information.
19.18 (14.18) Lauren Rousseau, 30, is the latest teacher named as a victim of the shootings.
Devastated friends say she was having "the best year of her life" after landing her first full-time teaching job only months ago.
"She was like a kid in many ways,'' her father, Gilles Rousseau, said. "That's why she liked working with kids so much. She died with her little kids.''
18.40 (13.40) Public Schools Superintendent Janet Robinson has told NBC of more tales of teachers' heroism. One teacher helped kids escape out of a window, while another hid children in the kiln room as the shooter made his way through school.
17.50 (12.50) Officers have "found evidence" at Sandy Hook Elementary School and at a second crime scene where a woman was found dead.
Speaking at a press conference earlier, Lt Paul Vance said:
Our investigators at the crime scene did produce some very good evidence in this investigation that our investigators will be able to use in hopefully painting the complete picture as to how and more importantly why this occurred.
17.45 (12.45) CNN is reporting Lanza had six guns - three more than previously thought. It is believed he used three at school including a Bushmaster assault rifle, while police have now found three more rifles at the second crime scene.
17.10 (12.10) NBC are reporting that there was allegedly an altercation between Lanza and staff at Sandy Hook Elementary School the day before the shooting.
Officials say Lanza was involved in an argument at the school which involved himself and four other staff members. Of the four, three were murdered in the shooting spree while the fourth was not at school yesterday and is now being interviewed by federal and state investigators.
16.50 (11.50) Newtown students heard their principal's murder over the school intercom, which gave them some time to hide, according to one young girl talking to ABC.
it is not known if the intercom was turned on by headteacher Hochsprung to alert others in the school or whether it was turned on for morning announcement.
Either way, it caught the initial moments of the gunman's attack and gave teachers and others life saving moments to lock their doors and try to hide their children.
Third grader Tori Chop said that she could hear her principal's final moments as Lanza barged in with his weapons.
"Yeah, yeah, she was crying. I thought she was screaming," Chop told "Good Morning America." "That's what we heard over the loudspeaker. We heard kids crying.
"We kept hearing gun noises and 'put your hands up'…we kept hearing that," said Chop.
16.16 (11.16) Lanza tried to purchase a rifle earlier this week at a store in Danbury, Connecticut, according to NBC News. He was turned down because he didn't want to undergo a background check or abide by the state's waiting period for gun sales, officials said.
16.12 (11.12) One 17 year-old boy called Jesse whose brother went to school with Adam Lanza has just been interviewed by the BBC
He said Lanza was "a social outcast", and "the kind of kid that wouldn't talk to people about the things that happened to them.
"I've heard he's very fidgety. He didn't seem like a kid who had a lot of friends."
He added that it was upsetting to hear that children he had previously babysat for were killed in the shooting.
He said many in the town had taken down Christmas decorations, as now was not a time for celebration.
15.42 (10.42) We now have a transcript of radio traffic featuring officers from Newtown police and fire department, and Connecticut state police immediately after the shooting started. It becomes clear that, as the police just confirmed, the suspect did force his way in to the school.
0935 Sandy Hook School. Caller is indicating she thinks there's someone shooting in the building.
0936 Units responding at Sandy Hook School. The front glass has been broken. We're unsure why.
0937 All units, the individual I have on the phone is continuing to hear what he believes to be gunfire.
0938 All units responding to Sandy Hook School at this time. The shooting appears to have stopped. The school is in lockdown.
0940 I will need two ambulances at this time.
0940 The shooter is apparently still shooting in the office area.
0941 Take exit 10... continue on Riverside Road, Dickerson Drive. Make sure you have your vest on.
0942 Last known shots were in the front of the (inaudible)
0943 We have one fatal in room one... (inaudible) received a wound to the foot...
0946 I got bodies here.
15.20 (10.20) Lt Paul Vance says the suspect "was not voluntarily let into the school," but rather made a "forced" entry.
They also confirmed that the woman found dead at the second crrime scene was related to the shooter.
15.14 (10.14) Lieutenant Paul Vance from the Connecticut State Police department is speaking live now outside the school. He says the victims have been officially identified, but they have some more work to do before they release the full list of victims' names and ages.
A crisis intervention team has been established in the town and their services will be available to victims' families.
He says they are still working on forensics at the school, which will take at least one to two days.
15.00 (10.00) USA Today said they had interviewed a very trauamatised school nurse from Sandy Hook, who described how the gunman walked into her office and looked her straight in the eye. She then was said to have ducked under the desk before he then inexplicably turning around and walking out.
She also said she knew the suspect's mother, Nancy, describing her as an "absolutely loving, caring kindergarten teacher."
There are mixed reports as to whether Nancy Lanza worked at the school or not, but this is the first person to talk about her being a teacher at Sandy Hook.
14.50 (09.50) As America starts to wake up, people have begun to lay flowers near the school.
14.30 (09.30) Mary-Anne Jacob, the school librarian, has just told Sky News of how she barrackaded 18 children into a cupboard to avoid the shooter. When asked about Nancy Lanza, the suspected killer's mother, she said she didn't know anyone called Nancy Lanza who works at the school.
13.30 (08.30) The superintendent of Newtown schools has just told the Today Show in America that Nancy Lanza did not work at Sandy Hook Elementary and she was not in their database. it is now unclear what her connection to the school was.
13.15 (08.13) As mentioned earlier, first-grade teacher Kaitlin Roig managed to keep the killer out of her classroom by blockading the door.
Here she recounts her ordeal and tells how she kept her class safe.
12.46 (07.46) A third young victim has been named as six year-old Jesse Lewis.
His father Neil Heslin told The New York Post that Jesse had been looking forward to making gingerbread houses in school yesterday.
“I dropped him off at school at 9 am. He went happily. That was the last I saw of him," Mr Heslin, 50, said.
“He was just a happy boy. Everybody knew Jesse.He was going to go places in life. He did well in school.
“He was in Ms. [Victoria] Soto’s class. We were supposed to make gingerbread houses today at 2:30 in his class."
11.30 (06.30) The Ottawa Citizen has published this photo purporting to show one of the victims, six year-old Ana Marquez-Greene, with her family.
Her father, Jimmy Greene, is a jazz saxophinist. Friends and fellow musicians posted messages of condolence on their Facebooks walls last night, including pianist Christian Sands.
@christiansands1 My prayers and heart go out to my brother, Mr. Jimmy Greene. Your loss cannot be compared. I'm praying for you and your family @jimmygreene
11.15 (06.15) The school's principal Dawn Hochsprung had a Twitter profile she regularly updated with news of how students were doing.
She had recently put up a picture of Sandy Hook Elementary practising an evacuation drill.
10:10 (05:10) Three teachers murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary School all died heroes as they attempted to save their young pupils from a gunman they recognised as the son of one of the school’s kindergarten teachers.
Authorities have identified principal Dawn Hochsprung, 47, school psychologist Mary Sherlach, 56, and 27-year-old Victoria Soto, a young first grade teacher, as three of the eight adults found dead at the school on Friday.
It has been reported that Miss Soto sacrificed herself to save her students – throwing her body in front of the young children.
09:50 (04:50) Friends and relatives have paid tribute to the school's principal Dawn Hochsprung, who was killed in the shooting.
Hochsprung’s niece, MaryAnn Suarez of Naugatuck, said her aunt devoted her life to the children at her school.
“In every school she worked at, every teacher was her friend, she was every child’s friend,” Suarez said.
According to Suarez, Hochsprung is a married mother of two daughters and four grandchildren.
09:25 (04:25) A second victim has been named, another six year-old girl called Grace McDonnell, according to the MailOnline.
She has been described as "utterly adorable" and "full of life", with eyes that were so blue and hair that was so blonde that friends thought she looked like a "little doll".
Her mother Lynn McDonnell, 45, a housewife, and Christopher, 49, a business executive, live just one street away from where alleged shooter Adam Lanza lived.
Neighbor Dorothy Werden, 49, said: "I just choke up when I think about it. Grace was like a little doll. She was utterly adorable.
"I used to see her waiting for the school bus over the road from our house every day.
"She had blonde hair and blue eyes - she was like a little Barbie doll."
09:15 (04:15) A picture of one of the first young victims has been published by the Toronto Sun.
Ana Marquez-Greene, 6, has been named as one of the 20 children killed.
She had just started at the school with her brother Isaiah, reportedly in grade 3, this year after moving from Winnipeg in Canada. Isaiah made it out unharmed.
The children's father is American jazz saxophonist Jimmy Greene. According to his online biography, Greene and his family spent the past three years in Winnipeg while he worked as a faculty member with the University of Manitoba's school of music.
Their mother Nelba, is a therapist who worked at the University of Winnipeg's Aurora Family Therapy Centre.
09:00 (04:00) It is believed the guns used in the shooting belonged to his mother, Nancy, who bought them legally.
Two 9mm handguns were found at the scene of the Connecticut shooting, according to NBC News. Lanza also reportedly brought two semi-automatic pistols and an automatic rifle to school. All three of those guns were legally owned by Nancy Lanza.
Connecticut residents must be 21 or older to purchase or carry a handgun, while Lanza was only 20.
08:55 (03:55) A reporter from the local paper, the Stamford Advocate, first broke the news to Lanza's father, Peter, a vice president of taxes for GE Energy Financial Services who separated from his mother in 2009.
"I told him I was a reporter for the Stamford Advocate, and I was surprised that no click of recognition flash across his face," writes Maggie Gordon. "So I continued, explaining that I'd been told someone at his address had been linked to the shootings in Newtown.
"His expression twisted from patient, to surprise to horror."
08:35 (03:35) As more details come out, more stories of heroism emerge.
Sandy Hook Elementary first grade teacher Kaitlin Roig was worried that she and her students would not survive the gunfire.
Ms Roig told ABC News that she quickly ushered her first grade students into the class bathroom and held the door shut with a storage unit.
"They asked, 'Can we go see if anyone is out there… I just want Christmas… I don't want to die, I just want to have Christmas," she said.
She told them she loved them as she feared it would be the last thing they would ever hear.
08:30 (03:30) Throughout the afternoon, Adam Lanza's older brother Ryan, 24, a former student at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut, was named by some news outlets as the killer.
Ryan’s identification had been found on the body of his underage brother, leading to the mistaken reports.
08:25 (03:25) Catherine Urso, who was attending a vigil last night in Newtown, said her college-age son knew the killer and remembered him for his alternative style.
"He just said he was very thin, very remote and was one of the goths," she said.
Lanza's parents filed for divorce in 2008, according to court records. His father, Peter Lanza, lives in Stamford, Connecticut, according to public records, and he reportedly works as a tax director for General Electric.
08:15 (03:15) The New York Times has done a profile on the killer, named as Adam Lanza, describing him as an intelligent but shy person, who left few footprints in life.
He did all he could to avoid attention, it seemed.
Lanza did not even appear in his high school yearbook, that of the class of 2010. His spot on the page said, “Camera shy.” Others who graduated that year said they did not believe he had finished school.
Remembering him from school, one of his old classmates, Olivia DeVivo, said she and her friends "weren’t surprised” at that news.
She said. “They said he always seemed like he was someone who was capable of that because he just didn’t really connect with our high school, and didn’t really connect with our town.”
08.10 (03:10) Overnight Richard Blackden, our reporter in Connecticut, attended vigils across Newtown to remember the victims of the massacre.
Thousands of residents Newtown, Connecticut poured into vigils last night as this small American town grieved over the second-deadliest mass shooting in the country's history.
People spilled onto the steps of the St Rose of Lima catholic church, where about six or seven families lost children in the shooting, according to parish priest Robert Weiss. It was a scene repeated in at least six church across the leafy town of 26,000 that lie 80 miles north of New York.
"This will change our country and all of our communities forever," said Diane Heineken, a resident of Newtown. "You are part of it in this community. We're all connected."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...ting-live.html
12-14-2012, 12:42 PM
KIDS!!
