29 People – Including 22 Children & Headteacher - Shot Dead In Elementary School Shooting In Connecticut

At least 29 people are believed to be dead - including 22 children - after a gunman believed to be a teacher's son opened fire today [Dec. 14] at an elementary school in Connecticut, making it the worst school shooting in U.S. history.

Police were dispatched to Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown after they received reports of shots being fired by a gunman in the principal's office and then a kindergarten classroom at 9.35am.

 Sources have named the gunman as 24-year-old Ryan Lanza whose mother is a teacher at the school. 

He is said to have gone from classroom-to-classroom firing at students and teachers with a .223-caliber rifle and specifically targeted his mother's classroom.

His father was found dead at his Newtown home around 2pm, according to officials.

 

Lanza is dead but it is not clear if he shot himself or was brought down by officers. His body is still at the scene.

A second man who was seen running from the school right after the shooting was taken into custody around 1pm after he was found in nearby woods.

Lanza is believed to have been carrying four weapons including two handguns and a rifle and was wearing a bullet-proof vest and black military gear.

One mother told CBS that her child said there were bullets 'whizzing by' him in the hallway and that a teacher pulled him into a classroom. It was said to have been like a 'war zone'.

The shooting is the latest in a series of high-profile gun crimes in American schools and colleges, that is especially shocking given the age of the students involved.

The school principal and psychologist are believed to be among the dead.

A parent said Lanza battered on a closet where 15 children and their teacher were locked inside shouting: 'Let me in! Let me in!'. The mother, in her 40s, who declined to give her name, said: 'I want to thank my child's music teacher. She saved their lives’.

'The shooter kept banging on the door screaming: "Let me in! Let me in!" but he didn't get in.

'Now I have to explain to my nine-year-old son that his friends won't be coming back. How am I supposed to do that?'

Alberta Bajraliu 41, got a call from a friend who heard a gunshot at the school and told her to check it out.
 The school's principal Dawn Hochsprung was believed to have been killed. Dawn Hochsprung, 47, has been the principal at Sandy Hook Elementary school since July 2010.

One teacher is confirmed to have been shot in the foot and is being treated at a local hospital.

Traumatized students were seen being led out of the school crying and holding hands shortly after the shots rang out. 
 The school has about 600 students from kindergarten through to fourth grade - aged between five and 11.

President Obama was first notified of the shooting at a Connecticut elementary school at 10:30am , White House press secretary Jay Carney said. The president has been receiving updates and will continue to throughout the day, Carney added.One mother of an eight-year-old girl at the school, Brenda Lebinski, said her daughter is safe thanks to one teacher's decision to move all kids into a closet when a gunman had entered the building.

Mrs Lebinski said that she had spoken to her daughter's teacher who was in the school at the time of the shooting, and that a masked gunman had shot adults in the school. 

'My daughter's teacher is my hero,' Lebinski said. 'She locked all the kids in a closet and that saved their lives.'

dailymail