E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSInvestigators are putting together a timeline of Friday's shooting, beginning with Adam Lanza's allegedly shooting his mother while she slept before driving to Sandy Hook Elementary School. NBC's Pete Williams reports.
Updated at 7:34 p.m. ET: Adam Lanza, who authorities say killed 20 children and six women in Connecticut, shot his mother in the head multiple times before heading to Sandy Hook Elementary School, where he fired hundreds of rounds and died with hundreds more at his disposal, police said Sunday.
It was an extraordinary amount of weaponry that Connecticut State Police Lt. Paul Vance described Sunday. In addition to an assault-style rifle and at least two handguns, he also had a shotgun in reserve in the car he drove to the school.
And when he was found, Lanza, 20, still had "hundreds of rounds" of ammunition in multiple magazines, after having already fired hundreds of rounds inside the school, where he killed himself with a gunshot to the head as emergency crews arrived Friday.
An explanation still hasn't emerged for why Lanza killed the 26 people at Sandy Hook, but Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy opened a window for speculation when he told NBC News on Sunday that it appeared that Lanza attended the school as a youngster. Earlier reports that his mother, Nancy, may have taught there haven't borne out.
"He attended there — that's what I'm led to believe," Malloy said on NBC's "Meet the Press."
The children — 12 girls and eight boys, all of them 6 or 7 years old — were shot as many as 11 times, H. Wayne Carver, the state medical examiner, said Saturday. It appeared that Lanza had enough weapons and ammunition with him to have killed many, many more.
Police were analyzing the weaponry, along with a computer they found at the Lanzas' home, for possible leads on the gunman's motive, NBC News' Pete Williams reported.
Conn. shooting suspect Adam Lanza's father: 'We too are asking why'
Lanza's parents were divorced, and he lived with his mother, who home-schooled him for part of his childhood, Malloy said.
Connecticut school shooter was 'very nervous around people'
"He had a very troubled life," Malloy said. "He never seemed to be a good fit. ... It was a very difficult time for him and his mother."
Malloy declined to answer whether any documented evidence had been uncovered that Lanza might have been mentally disturbed. At Western Connecticut State University in Danbury, where he enrolled at about 16 in 2008, there was never any indication of trouble, the university said in a statement Sunday.
Lanza took six classes — including website production, data modeling, Philosophy 101 and ethical theory — and compiled a solid 3.26 grade-point average.
Investigators resolutely refused to go into detail about the timing of events Friday during official briefings. But investigators told NBC News that Lanza first killed his mother, an avid gun enthusiast, with her own gun and then took multiple weapons with him as he drove to the school in her car.
To bypass security, Lanza smashed in a window, they said. He shot and killed Principal Dawn Hochsprung, 47, and Mary Sherlach, 56, a school psychologist, before proceeding to a classroom, where he found the door locked.
So he moved on to a second classroom, where he killed everyone he found, before doing the same in a third classroom, investigators believe. He then shot himself.
Watch US News crime videos on NBCNews.com
Although he was carrying three weapons, he used only one of them in all of the school killings — a Bushmaster .223-caliber assault-style rifle similar to the one used by the snipers who terrorized the Washington, D.C., area in 2002. It was purchased legally, they said. He used one of the handguns to kill himself.
Authorities haven't said how Nancy Lanza stored the weapons.
Marsha Lanza, Nancy Lanza's sister-in-law and Adam Lanza's aunt, said there was a good reason for a divorced woman who grew up with guns to have them in the house: self-defense.
"She lived alone. She was a female (who) lived alone," Marsha Lanza said.
Chief Justice Correspondent Pete Williams and Isolde Raftery of NBC News contributed to this report.
More content from NBCNews.com:
- Conn. school victims all shot multiple times, chief medical officer says
- Mom of suspected school shooter was avid gun enthusiast, friend says
- Newtown mourns: Candlelight vigils, Beanie Babies and a lot of tears
- Victims: Daring principal, fun-loving teacher, 6-year-old twin brother
- Lives saved by teachers, custodian and even kids
Follow US news from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook
Leave a Comment:
To all of the libtards who are calling for gun control name one law or set of laws that would have stopped this massacre. You can't because it wouldn't. Why don't you call for mental health reform instead. You enjoy dancing on the bodies of dead children to promote your rancid agenda. This guy could have used a number of means to create maximum carnage. The greatest mass murder in the U.S. was created by 19 losers with a set of box cutters. The second greatest massacre was created by a guy with a truck full of fertilizer. Get your heads out of your collective a$$e$.
And to the loser who committed this heinous act may you burn in the fires of h3ll for eternity....
Using the word "libtard" pretty much negates the rest of your diatribe...
Crawl back into your GOP Faux News cave...
Your comments are the excrement of a thought gone bad...
Pi$$ of libiot. Your kind scourer this board in an effort to insult people like myself. Now crawl back in YOUR sec-prog hideaway (MSNBC) and don't hold your breath for new gun control laws....
At least there's a silver lining in this cloud, and a ray of hope in this tragedy. Everyone knows that if you have a gun in the home, it's more likely to be used on the family than an intruder. That is the promise of a gun purchase. How often do you make a purchase, only to get the product home and find yourself disappointed by the reality of the product? It's heartwarming to know that, in this case, the gun performed as advertised! This is a real consumer success story! Personally, I see myself as protector of my family, so I would never have a killing machine in my house. But, at least it worked out for this mother! Money well spent!
She paid the ultimate price for her stupidity
Spoken like a true victim.
I've seen a lot of misinformation reported by the news media on this shooting caper that has later been corrected, or perhaps NOT. The latest is that the shooter used an "assault rifle" which by definition is capable of select fire (single shot, burst fire or fully automatic fire). Yet the rifle and handguns belonged to the shooter's mom and were legally purchased and registered. Sounds like bum scoop to me as more than likely it was a semi-automatic (scary looking to Liberals) black rifle.
What interests me more than anything else if whether Adam Lanza was being seen by a psych professional and if he was then what diagnosis/treatment was he receiving?
"Sounds like bum scoop to me as more than likely it was a semi-automatic (scary looking to Liberals) black rifle."
Are you kidding? No doubt that SOB was really scary looking to those innocent victims.
Has absolutely nothing to do with the "Liberals." It is what it is.
This guy WASN"T heavily armed: He had 2 handguns & a rifle in the car! Thug-Phuque-Wannabees carry twice that & 'they' arn't "Heavily Armed"! If you want to protect YOUR kids: Have YOUR school install metal detectors & mag-locks on thier doors to keep creeps from coming in after schools in sesion!! It probleblly wouldn't hurt to have 'Al & Louigie" to stand at the door as the kids are filing-in to pull these '20-mile-stare' phuques off to the side & do a 'Airport-Screening' job on THEM TOO!!! After all, EVERY 'school-shooter' has 'THAT' look (And if 'they' have to pull 1/2 the student body off to the side: Tough- SH!T: Yer kids still ALIVE)!!!!
Mag locks don't work that well on glass doors. Case in point.
I'm sorry but assault weapons belong in the hands of police and military personnel only. Its time to put them there.
You can't buy an assault weapon at any gun shop. You can buy a semi-automatic rifle that LOOKS like the military issue M4,AK47 or M16. There is a VERY OLD Federal Law dating from 1934 that BANS civilian ownership of Military Assault Weapons or machine guns. Now if you are one of a select few who can own a military Assault Weapon or machine gun you must have a very special permit that costs a lot of money.
The weapon is the expense. The tax stamp to the US Treasury is and was always $200 for a machine gun or a suppressor. The National Firearms Act was signed by Roosevelt. GOP mythological darling Reagan ruined the select fire weapons market by signing the Hughes Amendment in 1985.
I would hope that reasonable people would accept reasonable restrictions on firearms. I keep my guns locked away. Yes, If I feel threatened, they are more accessible. But, the only time ANYONE BUT ME can access them is...... never. Also, I would accept a REASONABLE mental health evaluation. I would even pay for it. (I could show my friends the results... maybe!) I would ALSO accept a couple surprise inspections to check if my guns are secure, if the local law enforcement felt the need to check! Basic gun safety education is a must! Take responsibility, gun owners! If you're not part of the conversation, you can't help make the rules! And, remember, it only takes 50% + 1 to put power over your lives!
Nancy Lanza was a wealthy woman living in a lovely, low crime neighborhood. Her sister-in-law reports that Nancy, .."a divorced woman, living alone, had a good reason to arm herself: self defense". An assault weapon? Did she keep it loaded, under the bed, at the ready, in case of an intruder??
Tragically, an unstable and menacing force was someone close to her, in her own home and her decision to arm herself proved fatal for many innocents.
So much for the self defense and the right to bear arms argument. Good for her and all the rest of you self-righteous, "your not going to take away my right to bear arms."
She duly exercised her rights, but her subsequent handling of this awesome responsibility violated the rights of many, many others.
US media outlets rather suck- that's you too NBC. The UK is much better for info: More details, more facts, less opinion. It was a Glock 10mm however that Adam also shot himself in the head with. Adam Lanza's mother was a prepper, hoarder, end of times person. So was he, but of a different sort.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2248983/Connecticut-school-shooting-Adam-Lanzas-survivalist-mother-obsessed-guns.html
"Although he was carrying three weapons, he used only one of them in all of the school killings — a Bushmaster .223-caliber assault-style rifle similar to the one used by the snipers who terrorized the Washington, D.C., area in 2002. It was purchased legally, they said. He used one of the handguns to kill himself."
So after every news organization reported for 36 hours that he used two handguns to kill all the people. They claimed they found a .223 Bushmaster in the trunk of his car, and it was not used in the slaughter.
I think our corrupt leaders know it will be near impossible to bypass our second ammendment rights.
They realize it will be much easier to ban all so the called assalt weapons.
The piece of @!$%# mother he had certainly didn't do anything to safe guard what can only be described as assault weapons. 9mm handguns, shotguns, and AR15 are human killers, simple as that. What human garbage, teaches elementary school and has this sort of arsenal when she knew she had a mentally disturbed kid.
An arsenal is a weapons production facility.
"A place where weapons and military equipment are stored or made" -Definition.
I guess I view semi-auto anything as military grade.
First paragraph says he shot himself with the shotgun, then further in the story says he used a hand gun to kill himself. Let's get the story straight before reporting US News.
"he killed himself with a gunshot to the head as emergency crews arrived Friday."
"He used one of the handguns to kill himself."
To shoot people that many times shows pure rage on his part. Someone (Mom) and/or a group of people (former students/teachers when he attended the school) made him so angry over the years that he finally snapped and got back at all of them. Unfortunately, Mom fell down on the job as a parent. I have special needs children, one who may have a background similar to this guy, and I know from experience that I would NEVER train him to use a gun. Don't have them around the house, never will.
60 Minutes: Mom (Nancy) was a gun nut.... shot several times in the face... found in bed. Was wealthy from ex-husbands income. SHE divorced her husband over money. He (Adam) probably told someone that he was going to do this.
Question: Where is it written that everyone is to live to be 120 years old and die in bed ?
It is written, in the good book, that these children must be gunned down.
My God ....children- 5, 6, 7 yrs old........where is the line for even the most depraved? What have we become as people..... and what is to come?
Guns are an enabler. You want to kill... its one of the most effective and easily accessible weapons available in the US. Its a quick solution, cheap, and easily doable solution.
Put guns in the wrong hands... and its a disaster. Bottom line... guns are accessible to everyone. Therefore everyone has access and can kill with a gun.
A lot less messy than a knife, ax, etc. A gun is a cowards tool...
BOOM! Run away!!!
Thanks NBC for providing live streaming of the 49ers-Patriots game during the interruption of the telecast for the political speech. Without it I would've missed some of the action. Great job!
Hundreds must mean at least 200, so the gunman fired at least 200 rounds and "still had" at least 200 rounds. 400 rounds divided by 30 rounds per magazine would require 14 magazines. This seems suspect since it is twice the number of magazines carried by soldiers in the Army - and soldiers have good reason to carry as much ammo as possible.
This is probably just another example of reporting by rumor or speculation that has plagued this tragedy since the beginning. 'The gunman shot his mother and the students in her classroom.' - no, 'The gunman shot his mother at home and then shot the students in her classroom at school.' - no, 'The gunman's mother was not even a teacher.'
A few weeks after this tragedy ceases to be 24-hour news, we may be able to search out accurate information.
100+ round magazines.
You are probably the only one who cares. Unless you're one of those conspiracy dudes.
Facts are facts.. spin it however you want.
All those weapons for self defense! Give me a break. Self defense for a woman living alone is a 22-caliber revolver in the top drawer of her night stand...not enough weaponry to defend Stalingrad!
The point is not that some criminal will get guns any more than criminals will not be criminals. The whole point of proposing this is nothing more than to reduce the number of guns an available to criminals, a point that makes some sense. This statement has been used very often that is practically meaning less; gun control is just to do our best to control guns. The separate fact is that criminals will always use whatever weapon that can get their hands to give them superior advantage in committing a crime. Committing criminal murder is less of an advantage than the threat to use a known threat such as gun in taking the money or property. It only means that the crime is easier to commit since the victims will not resist. Now it's all downhill from there, if the penalty for a crime of theft were death then the victims would be placed in greater danger as witnesses to the crime? Should the witnesses to a crime refrained from identifying the criminal (by some strange possibility), they could plead their case to the criminal, and yield not only to superior fire power, but also to encourage the criminal to continue using the gun to its full advantage. Might not the criminal become part of the same lobby to keep guns out of the hands of the gun toting honest citizen, just make crime easier to do without murder?
Hence this would become organized crime, trying to make its rackets, safer since the public would be unarmed, keeping gun laws on the books would be entry point into politics and hence campaign donation for public officials. (You might guess that this practice went away because of RICO statues). Today we see the NRA Gun Lobby has become enforcement arm for big businesses, serving as conduit for funds to politicians keeping them on the hook for laws, loopholes and every other thing else.
It is never enough of a hint; but seeing what underlies the repeated nature of the problem reveals the problem? Power in various forms of something (Guns, Money, etc.) over something else (Taxes, People, and Children).
The vast majority of people left to their own decision process would prefer gun registrations (indelible technical means) and owners in regular attendance at an every other Saturday drill. Having all the happiness that brings, and the self-inspection of anyone having problem fitting in.
However this cannot happen if the business lobby, the financial lobby, the bank lobby, the tax lobby, the gun lobby, the religious lobby and every other lobby gather its resources to finance campaign for thousands of elected officials. Those who pay for this modern system of influence are expecting something from their donor recipients, and what else does one do with a lobbying work force of 50,000 in Washington D.C. anyway? These are all interest groups, and the heads of these lobbying groups have sing to the tune. That vast majority of people are not aware of how or why the heads of their organizations are tolerated, the membership is disconnected from their leadership and has little recourse being fooled is very useful to someone else.
Power again, the man with the gun gets what he wants, the gun lobby believes it can even the score, the anti-gun lobby appeals to reason wanting a system of civilized laws to balance that power.
Considered the fantasized Power Play: The 20th Century instructed us with a figure like Nixon, other as well, who understood power, the need for his enemies to loose, and the willingness to do anything to get it, he also stood for revenge, and Nixon's ally was J.E. Hoover. Let's take a few of the milder power plays Nixon undertook. Nixon the 'ardent' anti-communist rode it to power, having seen that WWII moved the focus away from National Socialism, but gave leverage to anti-communism that was not well known until Stalin's abuses became known. Nixon gave Cuba over to communism because it was a way to get organized crime on his side (Casinos in Havana exchanged for those in Las Vegas). Domestically Nixon wanted credit advocating for the formation of NASA, 1956 removing it from the Air Force. However losing to Kennedy, was too much, using civil unrest, and various assignations and murders, and anti-communism ardor in Vietnam, and finally anti-war incident in Chicago to win the Presidency. However his madness for power, led to Watergate, but by then he had ended the Moon Program (revenge against Kennedy), and gave the Air Force designed Space Shuttle to meet military needs (and to reacquire NASA for his own legacy). Then to take revenge in all who opposed him, Nixon went to China, (communists as I remember) and proceeded to start the technological boom here and export technology that we import today. Nixon's power had less to do with his power than power itself. Reagan's stage craft killed any reality that we might have seen, masking it around an affable grandfather who could tell a whopper, and an anti-communist turned pro-Americanist. Believers fell in line unconcerned that Reagan was clueless about those minions around him that plague us today, with excessive military response to the reluctance of alternate energy investment, and then the entire unhinging of the financial system, and today we have the devastating after effects of the Bushes completing the Reagan revolution, the tax revolution and next ending the American Republic. Not for any reason other than Power.
Power is a force unto itself that does not need physical embodiment. Oh where art thou power that we may worship you above all others and to throw our children at your feet in sacrifice.
There does this leave us except as a pathetic country that cannot even protect its own precious children, is there any lower place we can go? In earnest ask what conclusion that politicians are making tonight, that says, no, no, no, by all means no. We cannot provoke the wrath of our contributing lobbyists, or campaign masters. For cannot you all see that such a rebellion would reveal the truth, all at once, that we really have been lying along. That we have been serving our pay masters more faithfully and that those who elected us are held at such distance, in remote regard that we dare not confess our crime.
For we politicians all agree that we don't want to be tried by Fox News, and pummeled in the public news blog, and wear the scars that the anger of three hundred million would hurl upon us with sharpen points. Our lot and those that we can drag down with us into the depths of Hell are better served by the eternity there than to give what cannot be more than passing due to these children, so few children, so unfilled, surely politicians are worth more, sure we will make promises, but you understand what we will not do is more important?
… The nation falls into darkness, stage light fades, and the red glow of hades lights out way downward …
There are non-lethal ways for people to arm themselves if they so chose (Tazer, rubber bullets, and I'm sure there's much more we could develop if we put our minds to it). Sure, organized crime might attempt to gain hold of some guns, but rarely do such organizations shoot schools or theaters up. Most normal criminals are wanting, and if the government offered a buyback program on guns, most of those wanting criminals would sell their gun in order to get their next meal or fix. For your "organized crime" there are official law enforcement agencies who would tackle them. Don't quite understand the other drama...Hades light? A little over the top, you think?
These assault weapons should be banned. They are killing machines designed to kill many people quickly. Hollow point and fragmenting bullets should be banned, too. Enough.
There were no "assault weapons" used in this tragedy.
To paraphrase Bill Clinton and Rahm Emmanuel, "Never let a good crisis go to waste." I've been watching the Sunday morning talking head shows. The civil rights opponents are out in force chanting "Tipping Point" and "Bright Line". They all believe this is their greatest opportunity to gut the Bill of Rights. Many recite the line "Hunters don't need "assault weapons". The Bill of Rights does not mention hunters, and has nothing to do with hunting. The Second Amendment exists to protect the right of the people to secure a free state.
Then we must accept the "massacre of the month" as the price of having the Second Amendment to protect the free state. Do I have that right?
Every amendment has it's limitations. Time to throttle the 2nd a bit!
Time to throttle Roadkill. What other parts of the Constitution don't you like?
You have no need to tolerate freedom. There are many countries where only representatives of the ruler are permitted to bear arms. Catch a plane.
Michael Bloomberg has been making the rounds insisting that semi automatic weapons have no place on the street. I'd like to suggest a pilot project. By simple executive order Bloomberg can order the NYPD not to bear semi automatic weapons. Let's try that out and see how it works.
That is one of the most ignorant statements I've ever read! There is quite a difference in police having such weapons and some idiot that thinks he needs a semi-automatic rifle for self-defense. More than likely, you'd never get to your weapon if you needed it. If you did, the bullet would pass through the home invader, through the wall, across the yard and into your neighbor's house.
The only real difference is that Bloomberg's cop is far more likely to shoot someone than a civilian is,
It is a tragedy, to be sure. But why is it that all these massacares happen mostly in:
States with strict gun laws.
Gun free zones.
Why do the cities with the strict gun laws have the highest murder rates? (DC, Chicago, Detroit)
Why is there no mass shooting at a gun show?
PEOPLE don't forget what agencies are the first to get cut when there is a budget problem. THE POLICE!
So who will protect you then?
PS- Florida announced to day that they have reached 1 million CCW permits today. No mass shootings (yet).
How about we save innocent lives and Ban Abortions first!
"an extraordinary amount of weaponry"? Most gun owners own 2 or more weapons. Hell...I own more and bigger than what he carried out this atrocity with. I'm not surprised in the least about the 'amount' of weaponry.
Expecting the Canadians to invade soon?