Connecticut gunman had hundreds of rounds; Obama to console Newtown

NEWTOWN, Connecticut (Reuters) - Worshippers filled Sunday services to mourn the victims of a gunman's elementary school rampage that killed 20 children and six adults with President Barack Obama due to appear later at an interfaith vigil to help this shattered Connecticut town recover.

Twenty-year-old gunman Adam Lanza shot his way into the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown on Friday, firing away at students and staff with a powerful military-style rifle. Victims were hit multiple times and at least one was shot 11 times, authorities said.

Lanza carried two handguns in addition to the rifle and hundreds of bullets in "multiple" high-capacity magazines of about 30 rounds each, Connecticut state police Lieutenant Paul Vance said. Investigators found a fourth weapon, a shotgun, in Lanza's car outside the school, Vance said.

Lanza used one of the handguns to kill himself, Vance said.

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.

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 the children walked down the street in the rain, carrying their toys and signs, a man sat on the back on 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 when school reopens later this week. 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 tragedies.

The president arrives after authorities released the names of the dead on Saturday and more details emerged about the victims and the rampage itself.

After killing his mother, Nancy Lanza, at home, Adam Lanza shot his way into the school. He had attended Sandy Hook as a child, according to former classmates.

Police were trying to establish the relationship between Adam Lanza, Nancy Lanza and the school, and whether the mother and her sons were frequent visitors to gun ranges, according to a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation.

Adam Lanza shot the children at close range, all with a powerful, military-style Bushmaster AR-15 rifle, police said. He also carried Glock 10 mm and Sig Sauer 9 mm handguns.

In addition to the 20 children slain at the school and his mother at another location, Lanza also killed six adult women at the school and himself, putting the death toll at 28.

Lanza had struggled at times to fit into the community and his mother Nancy pulled him out of school for several years to home-school him, said Louise Tambascio, the owner of My Place Restaurant, where his mother was a long-time patron.

His father, Peter Lanza, issued a statement saying the family was in a "state of disbelief."

"We too are asking why," the statement said.

Nancy Lanza legally owned a Sig Sauer and a Glock, handguns commonly used by police, in addition to the long gun, according to law enforcement officials.

Police said a telephone bomb threat forced the evacuation of the St. Rose of Lima Catholic church in Newtown on Sunday. It was searched and declared all clear. Officials said they were concerned about misinformation on the case being spread on social media websites.

David Fein, the U.S. attorney for Connecticut, issued a stern warning that harassment of victims or their relatives could be prosecuted. "Harassment not only includes in-person contact, but also contact via the Internet, social media and telephone," he said.

(Additional reporting by Edith Honan, Martinne Geller, David Ingram and Chris Francescani; Writing by Daniel Trotta and Jim Loney; Editing by Will Dunham)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/children-connecticut-rampage-6-7-shot-repeatedly-000819377.html

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