NEWTOWN, CONNECTICUT— Investigators piecing together the terrible events that claimed the lives of 26 people - 20 of them children - have discovered some “very good evidence” that could help them determine what caused the mass shooting, police said Saturday.
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Lt. Paul Vance, a spokesman for the Connecticut State Police, told reporters that detectives were continuing to process the crime scene at Sandy Hook Elementary School in order to “peel back the onion, layer by layer.”
Asked if officers had recovered any writings or e-mails from the person who stormed the school and went on one of the worst mass killings in U.S. history, Vance refused to say what had been recovered, but called it helpful.
“Our investigators at the crime scene - the school, the secondary crime scene - did produce some very good evidence our investigators will be able to use,” Vance said.
Friday’s shooting at Sandy Hook elementary in the small town of Newtown claimed the lives of 20 students and six adults. The shooter, who has been named as 20-year-old Adam Lanza, is also believed to have killed his mother at the family home before driving to the school and ultimately killing himself. It is one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history.
Police refused to confirm Lanza’s identity. Vance said the state medical examiner had formally identified the dead, and said their next of kin had been formally notified. Police have assigned a support officer to each family, who have asked the media to respect their privacy.
“They are going through as I know you understand a very difficult and trying time,” Vance told reporters. “I’m pleading with you. As you know this is an extremely heartbreaking, difficult thing for these folks to endure.”
Newtown is a community of nearly 28,000 people an hour and a half northeast of New York City. Many of the residents commute to cities like Stamford, Conn., or White Plains, NY - and even into the city. It’s the kind of place people choose to live because of the sense of community, the pretty houses, and the good schools.
Vance said the processing of the crime scenes - both inside the school and out, including all the vehicles in the school lot - will be “a long, painstaking process.” Three teams are working the scenes, and Vance refused to say how long it could take before the scenes were cleared.
Police also revealed Saturday that the shooter was not allowed into the school, as had previously been thought.
Reaction was swift and emotional around the world, any many immediately thought of Dunblane — a 1996 shooting in that small Scottish town which killed 16 small children and prompted a campaign that ultimately led to tighter gun controls.
Pressure to take similar action built on President Barack Obama, whose comments on the tragedy were one of the most outwardly emotional moments of his presidency.
“The majority of those who died were children — beautiful little kids between the ages of 5 and 10 years old,” Obama told a White House news briefing, struggling to keep his composure. He promised “meaningful action” on the issue of mass shootings, “regardless of the politics.”
Stunned residents and exhausted officials continued Saturday to fill in the details of the attack.
The school's well-liked principal, Dawn Hochsprung, was killed while lunging at the gunman as she tried to overtake him, town officials said. Board of Education chairwoman Debbie Liedlien said administrators were coming out of a meeting when the gunman forced his way into the school, and they ran toward them.
Asked whether Hochsprung is a hero, the chairman of the town's Legislative Council, Jeff Capeci, said, “From what we know, it's hard to classify her as anything else.”
With files from Associated Press
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SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO—Puerto Rican relatives of one of the 20 children killed at an elementary school in Connecticut said the family of a 6-year-old girl who was shot had moved to the mainland U.S. just two months before the tragedy.
The parents of Ana Grace Marquez had moved from Canada to Connecticut and enrolled the girl at Sandy Hook Elementary School because of its good reputation, the girl's grandmother, Elba Marquez, told The Associated Press late Friday.
“They looked for the best school for their daughter, the best,” Marquez said, adding that she had flown there for Thanksgiving.
She said the family had moved to the area because Ana Grace's mother had been hired to teach at a local university.
“It was a beautiful place, just beautiful,” Elba Marquez said. “What happened does not match up with the place where they live.”
Elba Marquez's brother, Jorge Marquez, who is mayor of a Puerto Rican town, said Ana Grace had a 9-year-old brother who was at the school during the shooting.
“He was in another classroom,” he said.
The family flew from Puerto Rico to Connecticut early Saturday for the girl's funeral.
Angel Marquez Perez, who is Elba Marquez's cousin, said the 6-year-old girl was born in the mainland U.S. and had visited Puerto Rico for the first time last year, spending Christmas and New Year's with her extended family.
“They had a wonderful time,” Angel Marquez, 71, said. “We're the kind of family who likes to have a good time.”
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