Early Friday morning, everything was just as calm and peaceful, as usual, in Newtown, Connecticut. There was no reason to believe anything different. People began getting ready for work and kids getting ready for school. Soon later, the unthinkable happened.
At about 9:30am, Adam Lanza, entered the school and horror took place over the next several minutes before apparently taking his own life after taking the lives of 26 innocent people, including 20 elementary aged children at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
“Evil visited this community today,” Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy said of Friday’s massacre.
Of the six adults, they included the school’s principal, school psychologist, teachers and also the shooter’s own mother, who became the first victim as she was found in her home.
Adam Lanza had three guns with him as he entered the school. They were all registered in his mother’s name and came from her home. Lanza had also gone with his mom to the shooting range, at least once, officials said. During the massacre, the automatic gun was used on the victims but reports are that one of the handguns was how Lanza took his own life.
President Barack Obama addressed the nation this weekend with heavy heart and emotion, including meeting with family members and some in Newtown, Connecticut last night in addressing the nation.
“We can’t tolerate this anymore,” Obama shared. “All across this land of ours, we have wept with you.”
“Can we honestly say we’re doing enough to keep our children — all of them — safe from harm?” Obama said, adding that “if we don’t get that right, we don’t get anything right.”
“If we’re honest with ourselves, the answer is no.”
President Obama also declared that things were going to change in our country and that in coming days he would be meeting with other leaders, law enforcement leaders and others to make sure change would happen to try and prevent events like this from happening again.
“We can’t accept events like this as routine. These tragedies must end. And to end them, we must change.”
Many heroes have emerged as more and more stories are coming out about the tragic events from this past Friday at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Dawn Hochsprung, had quickly become a hero to the school she was leading. After the first sound of knowing something was wrong, she ran out into the hallway along with the vice principal and Mary Sherlach, the school psychologist. Evil met them there. A parent who was with them and heard the shots too, hid under a desk and called 911.
Another hero was Vicki Soto, a first grade teacher. She hid her students in the classroom closet and ended up meeting Lanza. Reports were that she told him that the students were in another part of the school, where then Lanza shot Soto and moved down to the next classroom. On Facebook, her picture has gained over a million ‘likes.’
There are many heroes and victims in this senseless tragedy.
Our prayers go out to the families of those involved.