28 dead including 20 children, gunman in Newtown shooting

Unidentified people react on December 14, 2012 at the aftermath of a school shooting at a Connecticut elementary school that brought police swarming into the leafy neighborhood, while other area schools were put under lock-down, police and local media said. Local media quoted that the gunman had died at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, northeast of New York City. At least 27 people, including 18 children, were killed on Friday when at least one shooter opened fire at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, CBS News reported, citing unnamed officials. AFP PHOTO/DON EMMERT (Photo credit should read DON EMMERT/AFP/Getty Images) less Unidentified people react on December 14, 2012 at the aftermath of a school shooting at a Connecticut elementary school that brought police swarming into the leafy neighborhood, while other area schools were ... more Photo: DON EMMERT, Associated Press Photo: DON EMMERT, Associated Press Image 1 of / 123 Caption Close 28 dead including 20 children, gunman in Newtown shooting 1 / 123 Back to Gallery

NEWTOWN, CONN. -- A man opened fire Friday inside two classrooms at Sandy Hook Elementary School, where his mother was a teacher, killing 26 people, including 20 children, as youngsters cowered in corners and closets and trembled helplessly to the sound of shots reverberating through the building.

The 20-year-old killer, carrying two handguns, committed suicide at the school, and another person was found dead at a second scene, bringing the toll to 28, authorities said.

The Associated Press has identified the shooter as 20-year-old Adam Lanza.

CNN originally identified the shooter as Adam Lanza's brother, Ryan Lanza, 24, a Hoboken, N.J. resident. The AP said Ryan Lanza is being questioned by police in the investigation.

A Facebook page belonging to Ryan Lanza, a former Newtown resident who lived in Hoboken, N.J. who studied at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, has been taken down. Before it was deleted, Ryan Lanza posted on the page and said he wasn't the shooter.

The AP said a police source transposed the names of the brothers, leading to the incorrect info being released.

State police haven't released the shooter's name.

Police in Sandy Hook are at a house on Yogananda Street and have surrounded it with yellow tape. The house is owned by Lanza's mother, Nancy, according to public records. Sources said Nancy Lanza, was a teacher at Sandy Hook School.

Two victims have been identified, school principal Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung and school psychologist Mary Sherlach.

Hochsprung is being credited with helping to save others by activating the school's public address system during the initial flurry of bullets, according to a law enforcement source.

Hochsprung was a smart, positive, enthusiastic educator, said Danbury Deputy superintendent William Glass.

Glass received confirmation Friday that Hochsprung was killed in the shooting at her school.

Glass hired her for the Danbury schools as an assistant principal.

"She had a tremendous intellect and a wonderful way with children," he said.

"It would not be unusual to see her down on the floor working side by side with students."

She had a wonderful sense of humor and was always smiling.

"That was her trademark," he said." She was an amazing educator. She was everything you would want."

Sherlach, 56, had worked at the school for nearly 20 years, taking her position in 1994.

Former school superintendent John Reed, who knew Sherlock well, praised her for her dedication, warmth and intelligence.

"If there ever was a person, who by qualifications and personality, was made to work with children, to be a school psychologist, it was Mary,'' Reed

A woman who lives near the Lanza family said Adam Lanza, the alleged shooter, was a "reserved" and shy youth who appeared to be "troubled."

"His mother would always say how smart he was," said Beth Israel, who lives in the neighborhood and whose daughter was friends with Lanza while both attended elementary school.

Lanza's parents, Nancy and Peter Lanza, were divorced in 2009 after 28 years of marriage due to "irreconcilable differences," according to court documents.

About nine months after Nancy Lanza filed for the divorce, the couple worked out an agreement that included joint custody of Adam Lanza, who was 17 at the time, although he was to primarly live with his mother, the records state.

Law enforcment officials cited by the Associated Press said Nancy Lanza was a teacher at Sandy Hook Elementary.

State and local police blocked off the neighborhood surrounding a house in Newtown Friday on Yogananda Street that local property records state is owned by Nancy Lanza. According to public records Adam Lanza also lived in the home.

While State Police spokesman Lt. Paul Vance confirmed there was one fatality in a different location other than the school, he declined to identify the victim, but sources indicated it was Nancy Lanza.

The officials cited by the Associated Press said Adam Lanza drove to the school in his mother's car and three guns were found at the scene. Two handguns, a Glock and a Sig Sauer were found inside the school, the officials said, while a .223-caliber rifle was recovered from the back of car in the school parking lot.

An apartment on Grand Street in Hoboken where Ryan Lanza lives was blocked off with police tape. The FBI was on scene and took a computer out of the apartment.

First grade teacher Kaitlyn Roig tells ABC , she rushed 15 kids into a bathroom and barricaded the door to keep them safe after the shooting erupted.

"Suddenly, I heard rapid fire... like an assault weapon. I knew something was wrong," Roig, 29, told "World News" anchor Diane Sawyer Friday.

"It was horrific," she said. "I didn't think we were going to live.

"I put one of my students on top of the toilet. I just knew we had to get in there. I just kept telling them `It's going be OK, you're gonna be all right. I had pulled a bookshelf over before I closed the door so we were completely barricaded in," Roig said.

Mergim Bajraliu, 17, a student at Newtown High School says that he and his mother, Alberta, drove to the high school shortly after receiving a frantic call from one of their neighbors. The woman on the other end of the phone reported hearing what she described as a shotgun blast coming from the school. Bajraliu's nine-year-old sister (Venesa) is a fourth-grader at the school.

They said they saw a police officer carrying the limp body of a young girl who resembled Venesa and Alberta Bajraliu said she feared the worst.

Another girl walked by several minutes later, with "blood from the other people in the shooting," Alberta Bajraliu said.

A parent who picked up their child at the school reported that children were advised by a fireman to close their eyes and run past the office, where the shooting reportedly occurred during an administrators meeting.

At Danbury Hospital, officials were reluctant to give out any specific information, saying only that three victims had been brought there around 10 a.m., within five minutes of one another.

During a press briefing late Friday afternoon, John Murphy, president and CEO of Western Connecticut Health Network, said the hospital had been expecting to receive many more injured people. But the injured people never arrived, presumably because they had died before getting to the hospital.

Bridgeport Hospital spokesman John Cappiello said one woman was brought to the hospital from the Sandy Hook School shooting. Her injuries are not considered life-threatening, he said.

Murphy said the realization that there would be no more injured was "very emotional" and likened it to what it must have been like for hospitals following 9/11 "waiting for scores of injured that did not arrive."

Both Murphy and Patrick Broderick, Danbury Hospital Chairman of Emergency Medicine, said the travesty was painful to them not just as medical professionals, but as members of the greater Danbury community. "This is our home," Broderick said. "These are our neighbors. We care deeply about their well-being."

Murphy said the hospital has always had round the clock crisis intervention services, and has been offering support to families and witnesses within the community. To reach Danbury's crisis intervention services, call 203-739-7007.