Connecticut Shooter had hundreds of Rounds

NEWTOWN, Connecticut, Dec. 19,
2012 (Reuters) — The gunman
who slaughtered 20 young
children in Connecticut stormed
Sandy Hook Elementary School
armed with hundreds of bullets
for a military-style assault rifle
and handguns, and shot himself
when police closed in, officials
said on Sunday.
A more detailed picture of
Adam Lanza's stunning
attack on the school in
Newtown emerged as
worshippers filled Sunday
services to mourn the
victims and President Barack
Obama headed to
Connecticut to console the
shattered town.
Lanza, 20, who was
identified as the gunman by
police for the first time on
Sunday, shot his way into
the school on Friday, firing
away at students and staff
with a Bushmaster AR 15
rifle, officials said.
He also carried two
handguns and hundreds of
bullets in "multiple" high-
capacity magazines of about
30 rounds each, and had a
fourth weapon in reserve - a
shotgun in his car outside,
Connecticut state police
Lieutenant Paul Vance said.
"The Bushmaster was used ... in
the school in its entirety and the
handgun was used to take his
own life," Vance said, adding that
Lanza's motive for the massacre
was not known.
All the dead children were either
6 or 7 years old, feeding more
emotion into a revived debate
about whether stricter gun laws
could prevent future mass
shootings in the United States.
"If this doesn't shake the
consciousness of the country
about doing better to protect our
children, I don't know what will,"
said Pedro Segarra, mayor of
Hartford, the state capital.
While townspeople grieved,
investigators examined forensic
evidence and scoured the crime
scene in a process likely to
extend for weeks. Many more
witnesses needed to be
interviewed, possibly including
children who survived the attack,
Vance said.
Some of the bodies have been
turned over to families, he said.
"We have the best of the best
working on this case. ... Our goal
is to paint a complete picture so
that we all know and the public
knows exactly what happened
here," Vance said.
Painting part of that picture,
Connecticut Governor Dannel
Malloy said the gunman shot his
way through a school door
"using several rounds" before
beginning to kill adults and
children inside, then killed
himself as police closed in.
"He discharged to make an
opening and then went through
it, went to the first classroom ...
went to the second classroom.
We surmise that it was during
the second classroom episode
that he heard responders
coming and apparently at that,
decided to take his own life,"
Malloy said on the ABC show
"This Week."
"This sick fellow, you know,
clearly mentally ill, killed his
mother, proceeded to go on and
kill a great number of people,"
Malloy added.
Vance said Lanza's mother,
Nancy Lanza - found dead on
Friday at her home - was shot
several times.
Townspeople and visitors took
solace in church on Sunday. Mass
at St. Rose Catholic church was
packed. The priest's
announcements included news
that the Christmas pageant
rehearsal would go on as
planned, but without 6-year-old
Olivia Engel, killed on Friday
before she could play the role of
an angel.
Obama was scheduled to attend
an interfaith vigil with the
families of the victims starting at
7 p.m. EST.
MEMORIALS DRAW MOURNERS
Makeshift memorials appeared in
this affluent town of 27,000
people about 80 miles from New
York City. The largest, festooned
with flowers and teddy bears, sat
at the end of Dickenson Drive
where Sandy Hook Elementary
stands.
Residents and visitors streamed
past a police roadblock to add to
it. One woman knelt down and
sobbed violently.
As children walked down the
street in the rain, carrying their
toys and signs, a man sat on the
back of his parked car playing a
mournful tune on a violin to
accompany them.
"This is a time to come together,"
said Carina Bandhaver, 43, who
lives in nearby Southbury.
The children who survived will
not have to return to the scene
of the massacre. They will attend
classes at an unused school in a
Connecticut town about 7 miles
away, school officials said.
Classes elsewhere in the town
will resume on Tuesday, except
at Sandy Hook.
GUN DEBATE
Several Democratic lawmakers
called for a new push for U.S. gun
restrictions on Sunday, including
a ban on military-style assault
weapons.
Democratic Senator Dianne
Feinstein of California, the author
of an assault-weapons ban that
lapsed in 2004, said she would
introduce new legislation this
week.
"I think we could be at a tipping
point ... where we might get
something done," New York's
Charles Schumer, another top
Senate Democrat, said on CBS's
"Face the Nation."
Gun rights advocates have
countered that Connecticut
already has among the strictest
gun laws in the nation.
Obama's appearance will be
watched closely for clues as to
what he meant when he called
for "meaningful action" to
prevent such trag