Adam Lanza has been identified as the shooter at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut on Friday. According to news outlets, Lanza killed at least 27 people with most of the victims being children.
Lanza began a killing spree early Friday morning. According to the Los Angeles Times, Lanza lived in Sandy Hook, Conn. and was previously from Hoboken, N.J. Law enforcement officials were searching the New Jersey home of a relative and believe he was shot to death as well.
Lanza was reportedly a son of a teacher at the school. According to the New York Times, Lanza shot 20 students, most in the same classroom. He also shot five other adults, and then killed himself inside the school. It was also reported that Lanza killed his mother.
The victims range from ages five to 10 years old.
"We were in the gym, and I heard really loud bangs," said a boy, as he stood shivering and weeping outside the school with his father's arms draped around him. "We thought that someone was knocking something over. And we heard yelling, and we heard gunshots. We heard lots of gunshots. We heard someone say, 'Put your hands up.' I heard, 'Don't shoot.' We had to go into the closet in the gym. Then someone came and told us to run down the hallway. There were police at every door. There were lots of people crying and screaming," said a 9-year old student according to the NY TImes.
Another student told an NBC affiliate in Connecticut:
"I was in the gym and I heard like seven loud booms, and the gym teachers told us to go in the corner and we huddled. We all heard these booming noises, and we started crying. So the gym teachers told us to go into the office where no one could find us. Then a police officer told us to run outside."
President Obama weighed in on the situation, calling it "tragic" and was visibly shaken by the incident.
"We've endured too many of these tragedies in these past few years and each time I learn the news I react not as a president but as anyone else would as a parent and that was especially true today," President Obama said on Friday afternoon. "I know there's not a parent in America who doesn't feel the same overwhelming grief that I do."
Lanza's brother Ryan Lanza was arrested by New Jersey Police.
