Newtown, CT – New and disturbing details are emerging regarding the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that occurred on Friday morning in Connecticut.
Adam Lanza, 20, shot mother Nancy Lanza multiple times in the head before moving on to Sandy Hook Elementary and gunning down 20 children and six adults. Nancy was killed by 4 shots to the head, while she still lay in bed. Authorities now believe that Lanza took his own life as first responders arrived, reports MSN .
Authorities have, for the first time, officially ID’d Adam Lanza as the shooter, and have ruled his mother’s death a homicide, and his own death a suicide. They also revealed that the Bushmaster AR-15 assault rifle thought to be used in the massacre was indeed his primary weapon, and that he used multiple high-capacity magazines in the attack.
Lanza forced his way into the school by breaking through a window, and opened fire shortly thereafter.
CNN reports that Lanza still had hundreds of rounds of ammunition on his person when he was found, and that he used one of his pistols to take his own life.
“We surmise that it was during the second classroom episode that he heard responders coming and apparently at that, decided to take his own life,” said Governor Dannel Malloy.
A fourth weapon, a shotgun, was apparently left in the car and unused in the attack.
These new weapon-specific details emerge just a day after Chief Medical Examiner Dr. H. Wayne Carver gave details from the autopsies performed on the children and adults gunned down. He said that some of the children were shot as many as 11 times each.
Asked whether the children suffered, Carver said, “If so, not for very long.” Asked how many bullets were fired, Carver said, “I’m lucky if I can tell you how many I found.”
We’re still waiting on a timeline of events leading to the Newtown massacre, questions as to why Nancy Lanza had such a high-powered arsenal in the house, and what experience Adam Lanza had with said firearms. Speed on the investigation has picked up, but we sadly may never know why Adam Lanza did what he did, as authorities have still yet to determine motive.