Newtown, Conn., residents reeling from the massacre of 26 people, including 20 children, at an elementary school on Friday are searching for answers about the gunman’s motive.
Police have said that they are “working backwards” to piece together the “why” behind the mass shooting in this town of about 27,000 about 60 miles northeast of New York City. A noon Saturday prayer service is scheduled for St. John's Episcopal Church in Sandy Hook, a section of Newtown.
Newtown Police Lt. George Sinko, the department’s public information officer, told Patch Saturday morning that investigators have no sense of what prompted the gunman to act.
“There is no sense of motive at this time,” Sinko said.
Though Connecticut State Police have declined to identify the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooter, he is being widely identified as 20-year-old Adam Lanza. According to NBC News, three weapons used in the shootings—two 9 mm handguns and a rifle—were legally purchased and registered to Lanza’s mother, a teacher at the school whom police say was found dead at her Sandy Hook home.
Parents of schoolchildren at the scene Friday told Patch that the school was locked and that all visitors needed to be buzzed in. Sinko said Saturday that the gunman appeared to have blasted his way inside.
Police radio dispatches aired by CNN reveal harrowing early communications to emergency responders who arrived at the elementary school around 9:40 a.m. Friday.
"Caller is indicating she thinks that someone is shooting in the building," a dispatcher says. "The front glass has been broken."
And later: "All units, the individual that I have on the phone is continuing to hear what he believes to be gunfire. Units are responding to Sandy Hook school as this time. The shooting appears to have stopped. The school is in lockdown."
According to Sinko, the gunman may have shot out glass next to the front door of the school.
“We say that because the window next to the door was shattered. We are still investigating," Sinko said.
Sinko said investigators are sorting through a “tremendous amount of evidence."
Much of the investigators’ work involves checking motor vehicles, Sinko said.
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More links to Newtown Patch’s coverage:
- Reaction: Sandy Hook School Shooting
- Police Raid Sandy Hook Home Hours After Shooting
- [PHOTOS] Newtown School Shooting
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You sound like the type of kid who should never own a gun. Are you one of Obama's sheeple? Barneylicous
I am seeing a pattern here. Why is it all of the gun control bullies have horrible grammar and might be illiterate? Frank Rizzo, Tim and now Debra. Oh ya, they are lazy liberals looking to soak up your hard earned money. Barneylicous
I lived in Arizona for years in the desert,we had guns lots of them never liked them never shot one. but really did those guns go to this young man and say hey you should use me to kill all those children.. no his mind did it. having access to shose guns made it easier for him to act it out. And if i heard the news correctly he went to purchase his own gun but was denied.Do I think assault weapons should be banned yes.. no need for the common citizen to have one.
99.9 % of the time its used for target shooting or hunting.
Every gun thats not an automatic is a semi. What you want to do then is ban EVERY gun then. No.
As for the present, target practice? Lol im not going to waste my breath on that statement. But I will repeat what I said, doesn't matter what you use the gun for, it's still a weapon whose purpose was to inflict as much damage and death. Which is why cops are trained to pull out your gun to kill.
Only way is to make the item obsolete and/or ineffective and useless. How do you do that? No f*cking clue lol
hereAs I was going down to pull, I saw someone in the back of the Charlotte move, and I knew if I fired and missed, I could hit them," he said.s why you dont act like rambo" not to mention how do the cops know who the bad guy is? idiot "