Families have identified all 20 children and six adults killed in theConnecticut school massacre, as new details emerged on Saturday about one of the worst mass shootings in US history.
Police said the gunman, named locally as Adam Lanza, forced his way into Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown on Friday morning. Officers said they had "good evidence" relating to a motive, but declined to give further details.
The bodies of the victims have been removed from the school and taken to the office of the local medical examiner. Their names were due to be released later on Saturday.
A day after the tragic events in Newtown, residents have begun the long and painful process of grieving. Cloth placards have been slung from the windows of buildings in the centre of Sandy Hook, an idyllic New England hamlet still full of Christmas decorations, with messages such as: "God Bless Sandy Hook" and "Hug a Teacher Today".
At a news conference in the town, police gave more details of the attack. Contrary to earlier reports that suggested Lanza had been buzzed into the school voluntarily, Connecticut police said that he had entered forcibly, though they would not say precisely how.
Lieutenant Paul Vance, a spokesman for Connecticut's state police, said investigators had found valuable evidence that could help them piece together the full picture of what had happened, and crucially why. But Vance would not go into details of what the evidence was, nor what it revealed about Lanza's motives.
More information has also emerged about the six adults killed in the rampage at the school. They included the principal of the school, Dawn Hochsprung, 47, the school psychologist, Mary Sherlach, 56, and two teachers, Victoria Soto, 27, and Lauren Rousseau, 30. Two teaching assistants also died. The gunman killed his mother, Nancy Lanza, at the home they shared in Newtown.
Members of the school staff have been describing the events of Friday morning. Maryann Jacob, a clerk in the school library, told how she ushered the 18 nine-year-olds in her care to a back storage room, which was able to lock.
She told CNN: "We had crayons and paper in that room and we used that to keep the children calm," the teacher said. "They were asking what was going on and we said we don't know, it may be a drill, we are just going to stay quiet. But we knew it was real as I'd called the office and they'd told me a shooting was going on."
The killings ended when Lanza apparently took his own life. Three weapons were recovered inside the school: a Sig Sauer and Glock handgun and a military-style .223 Bushmaster semi-automatic rifle, which carries 30-round magazines. Three other single-action rifles of various calibres are being investigated in relation to the rampage.
The three guns used in the killings were all reported to be legally owned by the gunman's mother. Her body was found at their home in Yogalanda Street. Adam Lanza apparently killed her there before setting off for Sandy Hook school.
One of the mysteries of the events on which investigators will focus is why Nancy Lanza would have procured so many high-powered weapons. The Sig Sauer and the Glock are top-of-the-range guns used widely by police forces across the US.
As part of the investigation, police have questioned the gunman's brother, Ryan Lanza, 24, of Hoboken, New Jersey, who works at the accounting firm Ernst & Young, and their father Peter Lanza, a vice-president at GE Capital. Peter and Nancy Lanza were divorced in 2009.
Ryan Lanza was initially identified as the suspected killer on Friday. The confusion appears to have arisen because Adam Lanza was carrying an ID that belonged to his brother; that incorrect information was relayed to some media outlets in anonymous briefings.
President Obama used his weekly radio address to the nation to discuss the tragedy. He repeated his pledge, first made hours after the attack on Friday, "to take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this. Regardless of the politics."
Obama said he and the country would pray for the families of those who died as well as for the parents of children who had survived. "As blessed as they are to have their children home, they know that their child's innocence has been torn away far too early," he said.
Precisely what Obama intends by "meaningful action" remains unclear. But Jay Carney, the White House press spokesman, has said that the president supports the idea of reinstating the federal ban on semi-automatic assault weapons that was allowed to expire by the Bush administration in 2004.
The motives behind Adam Lanza's actions were still unexplained on Saturday. More details emerged about his background: former high school acquaintances interviewed by the New York Times described him as very bright, but withdrawn.
Lanza had attended Newtown high school, and the Associated Press said news clippings from recent years show him on the honor roll. Joshua Milas, a classmate who was in the technology club with Lanza, told AP he was generally a happy person but that he hadn't seen him in a few years. "We would hang out, and he was a good kid. He was smart," said Milas, who graduated in 2009. "He was probably one of the smartest kids I know
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/dec/15/newtown-school-shooting-families-identify-victims