NEWTOWN, Conn.
The massacre of 26 children and adults at a Connecticut elementary
school elicited horror and soul-searching around the world even as it
raised more basic questions about why the gunman, a 20-year-old
described as brilliant but remote, would have been driven to such a
crime and how he chose his victims.
Photos: Sandy Hook Connecticut school shooting pictures
CBS News has learned that all
of the dead have been identified by authorities with the help of
pictures provided by grieving parents and family members.
Connecticut State Police spokesman Lt. Paul Vance told "CBS This
Morning: Saturday" that the bodies have been removed from the school,
which remains a crime scene.
Investigators were trying to learn more about the gunman, Adam Lanza,
and questioned his older brother, who is not believed to have been
involved in the rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary. Police shed no light
on the motive for the nation's second-deadliest school shooting.
At
a Saturday morning press briefing Lt. Vance said that investigators at
the school crime scene and at the secondary crime scene - the home of
the shooter's mother - did produce "very good evidence."
"We're hopeful it will paint a complete picture as to how and why this unfortunate incident occurred," he said.
Lt. Vance also confirmed that the gunman was not allowed into the elementary school and had forcibly entered the building.
He also said there have been other arrests associated with this investigation.
In tight-knit Newtown on Friday night, hundreds of people
packed St. Rose of Lima church and stood outside in a vigil for the 28
dead - 20 children and six adults at the school, the gunman's mother at
home, and the gunman himself, who committed suicide. People held hands,
lit candles and sang "Silent Night."
"These 20 children
were just beautiful, beautiful children," Monsignor Robert Weiss said.
"These 20 children lit up this community better than all these Christmas
lights we have. ... There are a lot brighter stars up there tonight
because of these kids."
One parent whose children had
escaped the event felt a different emotion: "I feel in some respect
guilty because I have my baby here, and I just hope anybody who needs
help . . . I feel terrible."
Lanza is believed to have
suffered from a personality disorder and lived with his mother, said a
law enforcement official who was briefed on the investigation.
Lanza shot his mother, Nancy Lanza, drove to the school in
her car with at least three guns, including a high-powered rifle that he
apparently left in the back of the vehicle, and shot up two classrooms
around 9:30 a.m. Friday, law enforcement officials said, speaking on
condition of anonymity.
A custodian ran through the
halls, warning of a gunman, and someone switched on the intercom,
perhaps saving many lives by letting them hear the chaos in the school
office, a teacher said. Teachers locked their doors and ordered children
to huddle in a corner or hide in closets as shots echoed through the
building.
The well-liked principal, Dawn Hochsprung, was believed
to be among the dead. A woman who worked at the school was wounded. An
update on victims' identities was possible Saturday morning, state
police Lt. Paul Vance said Friday evening.
A law
enforcement official speaking on condition of anonymity said
investigators believe Lanza attended the school several years ago but
appeared to have no recent connection to it.
At least one
parent said Lanza's mother was a substitute teacher there. But her name
did not appear on a staff list. And the official said investigators
were unable to establish any connection so far between her and the
school.
Lanza's older brother, 24-year-old Ryan Lanza, of
Hoboken, N.J., was questioned, but a law enforcement official said he
was not believed to have had a role in the rampage. Investigators were
searching his computers and phone records, but he told law enforcement
he had not been in touch with his brother since about 2010.
The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the unfolding investigation.
At
one point, a law enforcement official mistakenly identified the gunman
as Ryan Lanza. Brett Wilshe, a friend of Ryan Lanza's, said Lanza told
him the gunman may have had his identification. Ryan Lanza apparently
posted Facebook page updates Friday afternoon that read, "It wasn't me"
and "I was at work."
For about two hours late Friday and
early Saturday, clergy members and emergency vehicles moved steadily to
and from the school. The state medical examiner's office said bodies of
the victims would be taken there eventually for autopsies.
At
least three guns were found - a Glock and a Sig Sauer, both pistols,
inside the school, and a .223-caliber rifle in the back of a car,
authorities said. A law enforcement official speaking on condition of
anonymity said some of the guns used in the attack may have belonged to
Lanza's family. His mother had legally registered four weapons, his
father two.
A law enforcement source told CBS News that Adam
Lanza had three weapons with him during the attack: Two handguns (a Sig
Sauer and a Glock), and a Bushmaster .223 assault rifle; spent shells
were found in the school. Those three weapons were registered to his
mother.
There was also a fourth weapon (a long gun) found in the car he drove to the school.
In
addition, the source told CBS News there were "a few" other weapons
found at the mother's house. The registry of the weapon in the car and
at the house are still be checked. The tracing of all the weapons - such
as where and when they were purchased - is still being conducted.
The
Associated Press reports a Henry repeating rifle, an Enfield rifle and a
shotgun were recovered. It was not clear exactly where those weapons
were found.
Adam Lanza and his mother lived in a
well-to-do part of prosperous Newtown, about 60 miles northeast of New
York City, where neighbors are doctors or hold white-collar positions at
companies such as General Electric, Pepsi and IBM.
Lanza's
parents filed for divorce in 2008, according to court records. His
father, Peter Lanza, lives in Stamford, Conn., and works as a tax
director for General Electric.
The gunman's aunt Marsha
Lanza, of Crystal Lake, Ill., said her nephew was raised by kind,
nurturing parents who would not have hesitated to seek mental help for
him if he needed it.
"Nancy wasn't one to deny reality,"
Marsha Lanza said, adding her husband had seen Adam as recently as June
and recalled nothing out of the ordinary.
Catherine Urso, of 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.
Adam
Lanza attended Newtown High School, and several news clippings from
recent years mention his name among the honor roll students.
Joshua
Milas, who graduated from Newtown High in 2009 and belonged to the
school technology club with him, said 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."
An official who spoke on condition of anonymity
said it was not clear that Adam Lanza had a job, and there was no
indication of law enforcement interviews or search warrants at a place
of business.
The mass shooting is one of the deadliest in
U.S. history, and among school attacks is second in victims only to the
2007 Virginia Tech massacre, which left 33 people dead, including the
gunman. Reaction was swift and emotional in Newtown, a picturesque New
England community of 27,000 people, as well as across the country and
around the world.
"It has to stop, these senseless
deaths," said Frank DeAngelis, principal of Colorado's Columbine High
School, where a massacre in 1999 killed 15 people.
In
Washington, the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence organized a vigil at the
White House, with some protesters chanting, "Today IS the day" to take
steps to curb gun violence. In New York's Times Square, a few dozen
people held tea lights in plastic cups, with one woman holding a sign
that read: "Take a moment and candle to remember the victims of the
Newtown shooting."
President Barack Obama's comments on the tragedy amounted to one of the most outwardly emotional moments of his presidency.
"The
majority of those who died were children - beautiful little kids
between the ages of 5 and 10 years old," Obama said at a White House
news briefing. He paused for several seconds to keep his composure as he
teared up and wiped an eye. Nearby, two aides cried and held hands.
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard described the attack as a "senseless and incomprehensible act of evil."
"Like President Obama and his fellow Americans, our hearts too are broken," Gillard said in a statement.
In
Japan, where guns are severely restricted and there are extremely few
gun-related crimes, the attack led the news two days before nationwide
parliamentary elections. In China, which has seen several knife rampages
at schools in recent years, the attack quickly consumed public
discussion.
At the Newtown vigil, Anthony Bloss, whose
three daughters survived, said they are doing better than he. "I'm numb.
I'm completely numb," he said.
Panicked parents looking
for their children had raced earlier in the day to Sandy Hook, a
kindergarten-through-fourth-grade school where police told youngsters to
close their eyes as they were led from the building so that they
wouldn't see the blood and broken glass.
Schoolchildren -
some crying, many looking frightened - were escorted through a parking
lot in a line, hands on one another's shoulders.
Robert
Licata said his 6-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."
He said the shooter didn't utter a word.
Kaitlin Roig, a teacher at the school, said she implored her students to be quiet.
"I
told them we had to be absolutely quiet. Because I was just so afraid
if he did come in, then he would hear us and just start shooting the
door. I said we have to be absolutely quiet. And I said there are bad
guys out there now and we need to wait for the good guys to come get us
out," Roig told ABC News.
"If they started crying, I
would take their face and say it's going to be OK. Show me your smile,"
she said. "They said, we want to go home for Christmas. Yes, yeah. I
just want to hug my mom, things like that, that were just
heartbreaking."
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