President Barack Obama is offering the Connecticut town grappling with the aftermath of a deadly school shooting "the love and prayers of a nation." The president says he is mindful that mere words cannot match the depth of the sorrow in Newtown, Conn. Twenty children and six adults were killed at an elementary school there Friday. Obama is telling the families of the victims that they are not alone in their grief. He says people all across the country have wept with them. The president is speaking at a vigil following his private meetings with the families and first responders.
Obama arrives in Newtown, where 20 children were killed, U.S. President Barack Obama has arrived in Newtown Connecticut, where 26 people were shot dead at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Friday. The head of state is slated to meet with the victims' families and members of rescue services and police. The president is expected to address a gathering before a memorial service for the victims. Last Friday, Adam Lanza shot his Mother at home, after which he proceeded to Sandy Hook Elementary School and killed 26 people, 20 of them - children between the ages of six and seven. He later killed himself at the scene.
Police find no suspicious items in Newtown church The police
have not found any evidence of suspicious items in the church building in Newtown, Connecticut. Earlier, the parishioners were evacuated after reports came in of a bomb threat. The church is located near Sandy Hook Elementary School, where on Friday 20-year-old Adam Lanza shot 26 people and killed himself. On Sunday night U.S. President Barack Obama, who has arrived in Newtown, will meet with families of those killed, and take part in a memorial service for victims of Friday's tragedy.
Connecticut church not in danger after phoned threat A Roman Catholic Church in Newtown,
Connecticut, was evacuated Sunday after a reported bomb threat during mass. Additional security forces and ambulances were summoned to the site. The threat interrupted a busy mass, sent worshippers hurrying from the church and touched off a large police response days after the worst massacre of school-age children in U.S. history. At least a dozen police in camouflage SWAT gear and carrying guns arrived at the St. Rose of Lima Church. The incident comes two days after the attack on the local Elementary School which left 27 dead, including 20 children. U.S. President Barack Obama arrived Sunday in Newtown to meet with families of the victims and attend a memorial service. Voice of Russia, AP, RIA, TASS, indystar.com
US: shooting overshadows Christmas joy The U.S. has
A young girl wearing angel wings arrives to offer her wings at a makeshift shrine to pay tribute to the victims of an elementary school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, on December 15, 2012.
entered a second day of mourning over 26 victims of the shooting massacre at the Connecticut school on Friday. Twenty children aged 6 to 7 are among the dead. Six adults were also shot. President Barack Obama is arriving in Newtown on Sunday evening to meet the families of the killed children. The formal appointment of Senator John Kerry to the post of state secretary was postponed due to the tragedy. The names of all 26 people killed by the 20-year-old Adam Lanza were released on Sunday morning. Although this is by far not the first shooting incident in the U.S., it is certainly the most tragic one with twenty children aged 6 to 7 reported among the dead. Twelve girls and eight boys were shot several times, said the chief medical examiner Dr. Wayne Carver. This is not just condolences that the nation now expects from Obama. Strict gun law is needed badly to avoid new attacks in future. This is going to be a very challenging thing to do amid the strongly lobbied National Rifle Association (NRA). This organization comprises 4 million people. The NRA was very active during the recent presidential election campaign calling on US citizens not to choose Obama. They spent some $300,000 on this counter-Obama campaign. Meanwhile, addressing the nation shortly after the attack Obama urged “meaningful action” against gun crime in the US. The question is how successful the president will be in fulfilling his promise. US papers on Sunday offer its readers to take a look back on a series of shootings which have happened in the country over the past five years. How more children should be killed to make the US government change its stance on gun control? The Pew Research Center says the U.S. has the highest gun ownership rate in the world - an average of 88 per 100people. Experts in US history stress that the constitution right to own a gun was not meant to be applied to any citizen but to provide arms to the militia forces that fought for the US independence two centuries ago. Meanwhile, another shooting incident took place in California on Saturday evening. Marcos Gurrola, 42, was arrested after opening fire at a shopping mall in Southern California. Although the gunfire caused panic, luckily no one was injured in the attack.
Obama to meet families of school massacre
victims, President Barack Obama arrives in Connecticut on Sunday to join in the mourning for 20 children, all 6 and 7 years old, who were slaughtered by a gunman who forced his way into their school and shot them with a rifle at close range. Obama will meet families of the victims of the shooting and speak at a vigil scheduled for later in the day. Meanwhile, investigators are still trying to figure out what led the gunman to kill 26 people, including 20 children, at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Voice of Russia, RIA,
Tales of heroism emerge from Connecticut school massacre Elementary school library clerk Mary Ann Jacob heard gunshots
and shouted "Lockdown!" to a class of fourth graders. Then she discovered the classroom door wouldn't lock. Quickly, quietly she and other library staff got the 18 children down on the floor and crawled with them to a classroom storage closet. Hiding from the gunman who killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Friday, they barricaded themselves inside by shoving a file cabinet against the door. "We settled them down with paper and crayons," Jacob told reporters on Saturday. The gunfire suddenly ended and police came pounding at the door. But the library staff refused to open it until they slipped a badge under the door, Jacob said. In the aftermath of the massacre, Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy on Friday said "evil" had descended upon the small community of Newtown. But emerging a day after the carnage were tales of heroism by school staff members, including the six who died. There was first-grade teacher Vicki Leigh Soto, 27, who police said "put herself between the kids and the gunman's bullets" and whose body was found huddled with the students in a classroom closet, according to The Wall Street Journal. And there were selfless survivors like first-grade teacher Kaitlin Roig. She told ABC News she scrambled her class into a cramped bathroom, locked the door and "told the kids I love them" in case those were the last words they ever heard. A school custodian reportedly raced through the hallways echoing with gunfire to check that classroom doors were locked from the inside, the Newtown Bee newspaper said. The day before the massacre in Connecticut on Friday, lawmakers in Michigan passed a bill - over the objections of the state’s school boards - that would allow people to carry concealed weapons in schools. That same day, Ohio lawmakers passed a bill that would allow guns in cars at the statehouse garage. Earlier in the week, a federal appeals court struck down a ban on carrying concealed weapons in Illinois. And Florida officials announced that they would soon issue their millionth concealed weapon and firearm license - or, as a state news release put it, the program would be “One Million Strong.” In short, the legal and political debate over the nation’s gun laws was following a familiar trajectory: toward fewer restrictions. Now, as the country absorbs yet another mass shooting, this one claiming the lives of young children, both supporters and opponents of stricter gun laws are asking whether the carnage might change that trajectory at the state or national levels. As President Obama used his weekly Saturday address to repeat his impassioned but vague call to take “meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this,” some gun-control advocates said they hoped that the shooting would be a catalyst for change. But supporters of gun control sounded similar notes after other recent mass shootings - including one last year in Tucson in which six people were killed and a member of Congress, Gabrielle Giffords, was wounded - only to see little or no legislative action. And as governors from around the nation condemned the Connecticut shooting and expressed sympathy for its victims, their first flurry of statements, from Democrats and Republicans alike, were far more likely to mention prayer than gun laws.
Voice of Russia, Reuters, NY Times Connecticut school massacre: will this ever end? Andrey Fedyashinm:
At least 27 people, besides the killer, have fallen victim to a bloody drama that took place in Newtown in Connecticut. The majority of those killed are children aged from 5 to 10 years old. The gunman, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, committed suicide. Regarding the adults, among his victims are his mother and another 5 people, including teachers and kindergarten teachers. U.S. President Barack Obama has declared a 4-day mourning in view of this tragedy. The main question America is asking itself today is for how long it will continue. The massacre in Connecticut is not the first tragedy that has occurred at a U.S. school. In 2007 a gunman killed 32 people at Virginia Tech. Since 1999 similar tragedies have been occurring regularly. During the Obama rule there were 5 tragedies, with a lower number of victims though. However, America has never experienced such a large-scale massacre carried out at a primary school. Immediately after this tragedy Obama delivered a speech in the White House. The questions that arise in the wake of the tragedy are what Barack Obama means when he promises to adopt “effective measures” and whether he will be able to do that. In the past 4 years of his presidency the gun control laws have been softened in many U.S. States. None of the U.S. presidents has ever dared to throw an open challenge to the powerful gun lobby in the USA as well as to the National Rifle Association of America, which is its main agency. The second amendment to the Constitution guarantees U.S. citizens individual right to possess and keep firearms. Russia must also draw conclusions from the Newtown massacre, Director of the Strategic Planning Institute (Russia) Alexander Gusev says. "This tragedy must sober all those who defend arms possession. Mankind must learn a lesson from the past because weapons not only guarantees protection but can cause death in people around." One of the most well-known supporters of tightening control over weapons trade in the USA is New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. After the tragedy in Connecticut he said that the situation is becoming unbearable, adding that all appeals for “effective measures” alone are insufficient. The President must submit a relevant law to the Congress helpful in settling this problem. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the leaders of many countries, including Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, have offered their condolences in view of the bloody tragedy in Connecticut.
Russians in Connecticut school sympathy outpour, Russians continue to offer
expressions of sympathy to the United States over the Connecticut school shootings, in which a mentally deranged young man, one Adam Lanza, killed his mother and 26 people, including 20 children, at a Newtown elementary school. People in Moscow have brought a heap of toys and flowers to the US Embassy. Numerous candles have also been lit. On Saturday morning, President Barack Obama received condolences from his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Reports from Newtown say the killer turned his gun on himself after winding up his shooting spree.
Putin offers condolences on Connecticut tragedy to Obama, Russian President Vladimir Putin has offered heartfelt condolences to his US counterpart, Barack
Obama, on Friday’s tragedy at a Connecticut primary school. We are particularly grieved by the fact, the Russian leader writes in his telegram, that the victims are mostly children. The Russian President asked Barack Obama to convey words of compassion and sympathy to the next of kin of the killed children and said he empathized with the entire American nation. 28 people, including 20 children, aged 5 to 10, died in a shooting spree at a primary school at Newtown, Connecticut, on Friday. The attacker, a 20-year old Adam Lanza, armed with two handguns, also killed his own mother, who was a teacher. He was found dead in the school building shortly afterwards. He had most likely committed suicide. The motives of the crime have not yet been known. President Obama has declared a four-day period of national mourning over the tragedy.
US president declares 4-day mourning for killed children in Connecticut The U.S. President has
announced a 4-day mourning across the country over victims of the shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. "The majority of those who died today were children, beautiful little kids between the ages of 5 and 10 years old," the president said at a White House press conference. "They had their entire lives ahead of them." "As a country, we have been through this too many times, we're going to have to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of the politics,” said Obama, as tears streamed from his eyes. 28 people, including 20 children, were killed when 20-year-old gunman Adam Lanza burst into an elementary school in Newtown. At least three people were wounded in the incident. Three weapons have been recovered from the slain gunman, identified by law enforcement as 20-year-old, Adam Lanza. Police say the suspect was the son of Nancy Lanza, a kindergarten teacher at Shady Hook. The suspect’s older brother, 24-year-old Ryan of Hoboken, N.J., is being questioned by the authorities. According to the Daily Mail the body of Adam Lanza's father was found at his home in Newton. The shooter had no accomplices. He was found dead inside the school building – possibly, after committing suicide. The Associated Press reports that Lanza's girlfriend and another friend are missing in New Jersey. Multiple media outlets are reporting that the school’s principal and psychologist are also among the deceased. Police are currently searching for the suspect's girlfriend and another person who have been reported missing. Both state and local police are still on the scene at Shady Hook and the superintendent has ordered all schools in the district, both public and private, to be placed on lockdown. Lt. J. Paul Vance of the state police department said that both on-duty and off-duty officers responded to the emergency. Shady Hook, around 12 miles from the town of Danbury, CT, normally has around 600 students in grades kindergarten through four. Mark Boughton, mayor of Danbury, tells CNN three victims have been sent to a hospital in his city in “very serious” condition, though he declined to comment on their age or identity.
Live coverage: Connecticut school shooting, one of the worst massacres in US history Twenty schoolchildren were slaughtered by
People gather for a prayer vigil at St Rose Church following an elementary school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.
a heavily armed gunman who opened fire at a suburban elementary school in Connecticut on Friday, killing at least 27 people including himself in the one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history. Newtown School Shooting Live: Watch live streaming video
at livestream.com, The 20-year-old gunman, who law enforcement sources identified as Adam Lanza, fired what witnesses described as dozens of shots at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, which serves children from ages 5 to 10. Authorities found 18 children and seven adults, including the gunman, dead at the school, and two children were pronounced dead later after being taken to a hospital. Another adult was found dead at a related crime scene in Newtown, bringing the toll to 28, state police Lieutenant Paul Vance said. As reports of the shooting spread, panicked parents rushed to the school searching for their children as students covered in blood were being carried out of the building. President Barack Obama, wiping away tears and pausing to collect his emotions in an address to the nation, mourned the "beautiful little kids between the ages of 5 and 10 years old" who were killed. "Our hearts are broken today, for the parents, and grandparents, sisters and brothers of these little children and for the families of the adults who were lost," Obama said, his voice cracking. "Our hearts are broken for the parents of the survivors as well, for as blessed as they are to have their children home tonight, they know that their children's innocence has been torn away from them too early and there are no words that will ease their pain," said Obama, who has two young daughters. "Evil visited this community today," Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy told reporters. The New York Times reported that the gunman walked into a classroom where his mother was a teacher, shot his mother and then 20 students, most in the same classroom, before shooting five other adults and killing himself. One other person was shot at the school and survived, the Times said. Other media reports said the gunman's mother was found dead at a house nearby. Adam Lanza's brother, Ryan Lanza, was "either in custody or being questioned," a law enforcement source said. The gunman was dead inside the school, Vance said. The Times reported he used a Sig Sauer and a Glock, both handguns, and said police also found at the scene a Bushmaster .223 M4 carbine, a rifle, that they believe belonged to him. The holiday season tragedy was the second shooting rampage in the United States this week and the latest in a series of mass killings this year, and was certain to revive a debate about U.S. gun laws.
Gunman who killed 27
in U.S. school shot his own parents, 27 people, including 18 children, were killed when a gunman burst into an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. At least three people were wounded in the incident. According to police, the shooter was 20-year-old Adam Lanza. Among those killed was his mother, who worked at the school. Before leaving home Lanza shot his Father, as well. The shooter himself was gunned down by the police arriving on the scene. Reports say the attacker was armed with two handguns. All schools and daycare centers of the city are closed.
27 dead, including
children, in Connecticut shooting, A gunman bursting into an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, has killed 27, including 18 children, and wounded at least three people. One of the wounded people is a teacher. He is now in hospital with a leg wound. Arriving police officers shot dead the attacker. Reports say he was armed with two handguns and might have had an accomplice. All Newtown schools and daycare centers are shut.
Gunman
gunman opened fire at a Newtown, Connecticut elementary school Friday morning. The Hartford Courant confirmed just after 11 a.m. that one student has been killed following an incident that began earlier in the morning, citing reports from authorities on the scene. Moments earlier, authorities confirmed that a suspected gunman was also dead while at least three others were transported to a nearby hospital. Police are considering the possibility of second shooter and are now searching for a purple automobile that was seen heading out of the city. Shots were fired at around 9:40 a.m. this morning inside the main office at Sandy Hook Elementary School, where normally around 600 students in grades kindergarten through four attend class. The school has since been flanked by dozens of state troopers, who are assisting local officers dispatched to the scene. All public and private schools in Newtown, CT have been placed on lockdown following orders from the superintendent, and the police are on the scene now attempting to determine the extent of the incident. The Newton Bee is reporting multiple injuries, and a hospital in nearby Danbury, CT says they have received three patients from the school. Voice of Russia, TASS, RT, CNN, AFP, RIA, Reuters, dpa,
Source: Voice of Russia
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