NEWTOWN, Conn: Twelve girls and eight boys. One had celebrated her seventh birthday just four days before her death. They included Charlotte and Jack, Noah and Grace.
Dressed in ‘cute kid stuff,’ all 20 died when a heavily armed 20-year-old gunman forced his way into their school, Sandy Hook Elementary, and shot them and six women in an act of violence that has shattered their once-tranquil suburban town.
“They were first-graders,” said Connecticut Chief Medical Examiner Dr H Wayne Carver II, before releasing the names of the victims. Asked to describe the attack, Carver, who oversaw the autopsies of all the victims and conducted many himself, called it “the worst I have seen.”
The shooter, identified by law enforcement officials as Adam Lanza, killed his mother Nancy on Friday, then drove to the school where he gunned down another 26 people before taking his own life.
He fired a rifle, shooting his victims multiple times.
Parents identified their children through pictures, a process intended to minimize their shock, Carver said.
He said all the bodies had examined had been shot with a rifle. He said he and his staff had not yet examined the shooter or his mother.
Police earlier said they had assembled “some very good evidence” on the killer’s motives.
“Our investigators at the crime scene … did produce some very good evidence in this investigation that we will be able to use in, hopefully, painting the complete picture as to how – and more importantly why – this occurred,” Connecticut State Police Lieutenant Paul Vance said. — Reuters