A young gunman killed his mother and 25 other people, including 18 children, when he went on a shooting rampage inside a US school, before turning the gun on himself, in one of the deadliest such incidents witnessed in the country. The shooter whose act of firing indisciminately at students and staff left the Connecticut city of Newton shocked and paralysed was identified as 20-year-old Ryan Lanza.
According to the New York Times, Lanza’s mother was a teacher at the school and he walked up to her classroom loaded with two 9mm handguns and wearing all black, and opened fire, killing her and 25 other adults and children. He first shot and killed his mother and then shot 18 students in the classroom before killing himself inside the school. The incident occurred at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown city of Connecticut state. Connecticut police said “several fatalities” have been reported in the incident that sent crying children spilling into the school parking lot as frightened parents waited for a word on their kids. Connecticut State Police lieutenant Paul Vance told reporters outside the school that the “shooter was deceased inside the building.”
He said the shooting resulted in “several fatalities including students and staff.” The police has recovered a 9mm handgun from the scene. Officials said the shooter wore black combat dear and a military vest. There was also some confusion initially about the number of shooters as some reports suggested two men were likely involved in the shooting episode. Fox News quoted a law enforcement official as saying earlier that the shooter was believed to be a father of one of the students at the school. The police however did not release information about the shooter and whether he was a parent or worked at the school.