Is it the end of the world? I don't think that is suppose to happen until Friday the 21st but it may have come a few days early. I am speechless.
How someone can bust through an elementary school and shoot 20 kids and 6 adults is way beyond my comprehension. I am just sick. It is scary that someone can be that evil. The world is in mourning right now. All flags are down halfway and I am glued to the news.
On December 14, 2012, a gunman killed twenty children and six adult staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, before committing suicide. The gunman, identified by authorities as 20-year-old Adam Lanza, had previously killed his mother, Nancy Lanza, at their nearby Newtown home. He then drove to the school and shot the students and employees before killing himself. The total death toll was 28, including the perpetrator.
Some time before 9:30 a.m. on December 14, 2012, Adam Peter Lanza is believed to have fatally shot his mother Nancy Lanza, aged 52, in the face and head at their Newtown home. Investigators later found her body in her bed, wearing pajamas, with four gunshots to her head. Lanza then drove his mother's black Honda Civic to the Sandy Hook Elementary School.
At about 9:35 a.m. Lanza shot his way in through a locked glass door at the front of the school. He was wearing black military-style gear, including a vest and mask. Some of those present reported that initial shots were heard on the school intercom system, which was being used for morning announcements.
Principal Dawn Hochsprung and school psychologist Mary Sherlach were in a meeting with several other faculty members when they heard gunshots outside the room. Hochsprung and Sherlach immediately left the room and rushed to the source of the sounds to encounter Lanza, who fatally shot them in a nearby hallway. Diane Day, a school therapist who was at the faculty meeting as well, reported hearing screaming, followed by more gunshots. Natalie Hammond, vice principal and lead teacher in the meeting room, pressed her body against the door to keep it closed. Lanza shot Hammond through the door in the leg and arm, for which she was later treated at Danbury Hospital.
Teacher Victoria Soto attempted to hide several children in a closet and cupboards. As Lanza entered her classroom, she put herself between the shooter and her students, and he fatally shot her. Lauren Rousseau, a substitute teacher since October, was shot in the face and killed. Teacher Anne Marie Murphy was found dead in her classroom, her body shielding her students.
Elsewhere in the building, a custodian ran through hallways, alerting classrooms. First grade teacher Kaitlyn Roig, age 29, hid 14 students in a bathroom and barricaded the door, telling them to be completely quiet to remain safe. Maryann Jacob, the library clerk for the school, first hid 18 children in a part of the library the school used for lockdown in practice drills, but on discovering that one of the doors would not lock, had the children crawl into a storage room as she barricaded the door with a filing cabinet. Laura Feinstein, a reading specialist at the school, gathered two students from outside her classroom and hid with them under desks after they heard gunshots. Feinstein made two calls, one to the school office and the other, unsuccessfully, to 911. After hiding with the children for approximately 40 minutes, law enforcement finally came to lead them out of the room.
The shooting stopped between 9:46 a.m. and 9:53 a.m., after approximately 50 to 100 rounds had been fired. Lanza shot all victims multiple times, and he shot at least one victim 11 times. Most of the shooting took place in two first-grade classrooms, with fourteen deaths in one room and six in the other. The student victims were eight boys and twelve girls between six and seven years of age,and the six adults were all women who worked at the school. Lanza shot himself in the head as first responders arrived.
Authorities found a very large quantity of unused ammunition at the school, suggesting Lanza was planning an even worse massacre than had taken place.
How someone can bust through an elementary school and shoot 20 kids and 6 adults is way beyond my comprehension. I am just sick. It is scary that someone can be that evil. The world is in mourning right now. All flags are down halfway and I am glued to the news.
