27 People Dead, Mostly Children, at Connecticut Elementary School Shooting

SamAca10

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More than two dozen people, mostly elementary school children, were shot and killed at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school this morning, federal and state sources tell ABC News.

The massacre involved two gunmen and prompted the town of Newtown to lock down all of its schools and draw SWAT teams to the school, authorities said today.

One shooter is dead and a manhunt is on for a second gunman. Police are searching cars. One shooter was described as a 24-year-old armed with four weapons and wearing a bullet vest, sources told ABC News.

It's unclear how many people have been shot, but 25 people, mostly children are dead, multiple federal and state sources tell ABC News. That number could rise, officials said.

President Obama was briefed on the shooting by FBI Director Bob Mueller.

It is the worst shooting in a U.S. elementary school in recent memory and exceeds the carnage at 1999 Coumbine High School shooting in which 13 died and 24 were injured.

The Newtown shooting comes just three days after masked gunman Jacob Roberts opened fire in a busy Oregon, mall killing two before turning the gun on himself.

Today's shooting occurred at the Sandy Hook Elementary School, which includes 450 students in grades from kindergarten through fourth grade. The town is located about 12 miles east of Danbury.

Watch Upcoming State Police News Conference Live at ABCNews.com

State Police received the first 911 call at 9:41a.m. and immediately began sending emergency units from the western part of the state. Initial 911 calls stated that multiple students were trapped in a classroom, possibly with a gunman, according to a Connecticut State Police source.

A photo from the scene shows a line of distressed children being led out of the school.

LIVE UPDATES: Newtown, Conn., School Shooting

Three patients have been taken to Danbury Hospital, which is also on lockdown, according to the hospital's Facebook page.

"Out of abundance of caution and not because of any direct threat Danbury Hospital is under lockdown," the statement said. "This allows us simply to focus on the important work at hand."

CLICK HERE for more photos from the scene.

Newtown Public School District secretary of superintendent Kathy June said in a statement that the district's school were locked down because of the report of a shooting. "The district is taking preventive measures by putting all schools in lockdown until we ensure the safety of all students and staff."

State police sent SWAT team units to Newtown.

All public and private schools in the town are on lockdown.

"We have increased our police presence at all Danbury Public Schools due to the events in Newtown. Pray for the victims," Newtown Mayor Boughton tweeted.

State emergency management officials said ambulances and other units were also en route and staging near the school.

A message on the school district website says that all afternoon kindergarten is cancelled today and there will be no mid-day bus runs.

http://gma.yahoo.com/breaking-conn-school-district-locked-down-shooting-report-151955384--abc-news-topstories.html

My prayers go out to the people of the community and the family of those who lost children.
 
Thoughts and prayers go out to all of them including the survivors. Kids, they're just kids can't people just leave them alone. Makes me want to leave work and pick up mine just to hold them.
 
Words aren't expressive enough.
 
Seems like there are mass shooters one after another. How can we prevent these things...?

Like Bruno said, words can't express. My heart goes out to the families of the victims.
 
You know whats really sad? The fact that people, the media, and maybe even Congress will briefly debate gun-control but it will be soon abandoned for other "pressing" issues and absolutely nothing will be done to change the system we live in. Another tragedy will occur and the cycle will just repeat itself, over and over...
 
God Bless these lost souls and their families, a tragedy beyond words.

My first reaction was to call both son's to tell them we loved them. There are no words to describe this type of evil. May they rest in Peace.
 
You know whats really sad? The fact that people, the media, and maybe even Congress will briefly debate gun-control but it will be soon abandoned for other "pressing" issues and absolutely nothing will be done to change the system we live in. Another tragedy will occur and the cycle will just repeat itself, over and over...

wash. rinse. repeat.
 
The 20 year old that killed so many was already breaking gun-control laws. He wasn't lawfully carrying a fire arm, certainly not in the states he carried. If anything, this shows that a crazy person that wants to kill, will kill. It has nothing to do with gun control.

Want to remove all firearms? The only people with guns then are the criminals.

I'm disturbed about the number of pundits that want to turn this into a debate immediately. Let the families mourn, bury their children.

The debate around gun-control isn't going away any time, we can have this debate, but I don't think now is the time.
 
You know whats really sad? The fact that people, the media, and maybe even Congress will briefly debate gun-control but it will be soon abandoned for other "pressing" issues and absolutely nothing will be done to change the system we live in. Another tragedy will occur and the cycle will just repeat itself, over and over...

Unfortunately, as nice as the idea of a gun control law that would prevent these sort of things is, it's not feasible in America. We're too far past it. There are just over 300 million registered guns in America, owned by about 100 million people (legal ownership, that is). You can't get 300 million guns off the street, especially with the 2nd Amendment and the gun lobby.

Like it or not, we're an armed society and we'll stay that way. We made a pact with firearms two centuries ago, and we're stuck with the ups and downs of that.
 
You know whats really sad? The fact that people, the media, and maybe even Congress will briefly debate gun-control but it will be soon abandoned for other "pressing" issues and absolutely nothing will be done to change the system we live in. Another tragedy will occur and the cycle will just repeat itself, over and over...

No, what's really sad is the death of 20 children and 6 adults.

Here's an idea, could you try and keep the politics out of this for at least a couple days.
 
No, what's really sad is the death of 20 children and 6 adults.

Here's an idea, could you try and keep the politics out of this for at least a couple days.

Amen.
Right now- almost 30 families are feeling an undescribable pain and loss from an act of pure evil. For once- Please- I beg you -FOCUS ON CARING ABOUT THOSE IN NEED and not about your own need to expound. What we all need to do is pray or send thoughts of love, support and caring to all those in need right now.
 
Amen.
Right now- almost 30 families are feeling an undescribable pain and loss from an act of pure evil. For once- Please- I beg you -FOCUS ON CARING ABOUT THOSE IN NEED and not about your own need to expound. What we all need to do is pray or send thoughts of love, support and caring to all those in need right now.

I agree.
Right at the holidays, a time usually to gather within families. This is what they will always remember.
There are also a lot of very young children that will have to deal with what they saw for the rest of their lives. I cannot imagine what to say to those children that witnessed this.
 
Did the mere mention of the word "Congress" in my last post suddenly throw off alarms and bells? I did not use this tragedy as a springboard for my opinion on gun-control or gun rights. All I did was express my cynicism at the paralysis of our society to do something to address this problem and that once again, nothing meaningful will be done at any level of government. We all disagree on what needs to be done but I think we can all agree that something has to be done...maybe SP is right, but I like to think otherwise...I think we are better than this. Expressing condolences, sending our thoughts and prayers are never wrong; it is the right thing to do, but emotions won't prevent another massacre. Like we did with Columbine, VT, and Aurora, we will all, as a nation, forget about this incident and go about our lives until more innocent lives are lost. This is probably not the last time we will see similar headlines and that is what saddens me the most.
 
In The Words of Morgan Freeman

"You want to know why. This may sound cynical, but here's why.

It's because of the way the media reports it. Flip on the news and watch how we treat the Batman theater shooter and the Oregon mall shooter like celebrities. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris are household names, but do you know the name of a single victim of Columbine? Disturbed

people who would otherwise just off themselves in their basements see the news and want to top it by doing something worse, and going out in a memorable way. Why a grade school? Why children? Because he'll be remembered as a horrible monster, instead of a sad nobody.

CNN's article says that if the body count "holds up", this will rank as the second deadliest shooting behind Virginia Tech, as if statistics somehow make one shooting worse than another. Then they post a video interview of third-graders for all the details of what they saw and heard while the shootings were happening. Fox News has plastered the killer's face on all their reports for hours. Any articles or news stories yet that focus on the victims and ignore the killer's identity? None that I've seen yet. Because they don't sell. So congratulations, sensationalist media, you've just lit the fire for someone to top this and knock off a day care center or a maternity ward next.

You can help by forgetting you ever read this man's name, and remembering the name of at least one victim. You can help by donating to mental health research instead of pointing to gun control as the problem. You can help by turning off the news."

Freeman’s words give pause for thought and reflection. I pose this question to the reader: What do you think? Are people seeking attention and notoriety because of the way the media portrays them? People who commit suicide often feel like they are alone and a nobody. In this case did Lanza decide he wanted to go down in history books by making his name synonymous with monstrosity?

I’m not sure we will ever truly know why the events unfolded the way they did. Let’s take Freeman’s advice and remember the names of the children we lost.

Sandy Hill students:

- Charlotte Bacon, 2/22/06, female

- Daniel Barden, 9/25/05, male

- Rachel Davino, 7/17/83, female.

- Olivia Engel, 7/18/06, female

- Josephine Gay, 12/11/05, female

- Ana M. Marquez-Greene, 04/04/06, female

- Dylan Hockley, 3/8/06, male

- Dawn Hocksprung, 06/28/65, female

- Madeleine F. Hsu, 7/10/06, female

- Catherine V. Hubbard, 6/08/06, female

- Chase Kowalski, 10/31/05, male

- Jesse Lewis, 6/30/06, male

- James Mattioli , 3/22/06, male

- Grace McDonnell, 12/04/05, female

- Anne Marie Murphy, 07/25/60, female

- Emilie Parker, 5/12/06, female

- Jack Pinto, 5/06/06, male

- Noah Pozner, 11/20/06, male

- Caroline Previdi, 9/07/06, female

- Jessica Rekos, 5/10/06, female

- Avielle Richman, 10/17/06, female

- Lauren Russeau, 6/1982, female (full date of birth not specified)

- Mary Sherlach, 2/11/56, female

- Victoria Soto, 11/04/85, female

- Benjamin Wheeler, 9/12/06, male

- Allison N. Wyatt, 7/03/06, female

Let's keep the names of these children in our memory, and keep the family and community members in our thoughts and prayers.
 
My heart aches for all these young souls to meet their end so painfully. Their full promise will never be realized here with us, but I hope they are wrapped in loving arms above. I don't know what else to say, but my mind and intellect cannot comprehend how malicious another human can become. My hatred to the kind of wasted flesh and bones that would commit such a cowardly act goes checked only by me desired sense that somehow how we are better than this. I don't the know answer, but I believe that the small concerted effort by many to become vigilant and intolerant of depravity in their everyday lives can push back the tide of the growing wave of immorality in our country. I'm so sorry young ones. I wish I could make it right. You did't deserve this.
 
My heart goes out to the whole town. My mom is a teacher at our local elementary school and my little brother is in elementary school too and I don't know what I'd do if something like that happened at their school and they were hurt or worse. I really cannot even imagine. The families and friends of these children are in my prayers.

These kids never had a chance to live. They hadn't even begun to live their life. They will never graduate school, go to college, have a job, get married, etc. They never had a chance to escape from the gunman.

The faculty was amazing, a janitor rand down the halls alerting the the classrooms so teachers could keep the kids safe; they put them in closets or behind the doors. One of the teachers died by shielding her students.

I'm also praying for the family of the gunman, I feel bad for them, they probably feel terrible about what happened.
 
The nutters from Westboro Baptist Church protesting at the funeral(s) and services is not gonna make it any easier for this town.
 
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