Article 1: "Conn. school victims shot by rifle multiple times"

D says: My first commentary. God bless the victims and their families, as well as witnesses and friends. I don't mean to offend anything, but some of the news about this tragedy has been pissing me off lately.


Find the article here:
http://news.yahoo.com/conn-school-victims-shot-rifle-multiple-times-205207737.html
[Source: Yahoo! News.]

By By JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN and JIM FITZGERALD | Associated Press

D says: Double "by" fail.





NEWTOWN, Conn. (AP) — All the victims of the Connecticut elementary school shooting were killed up close by multiple rifle shots, a medical examiner said.


D says: His mental condition was bad, but what did he think he was shooting at? Zombies?


Dr. H. Wayne Carver said at a news conference Saturday the deaths are classified as homicides. He said he believes "everybody was hit more than once."


"This is a very devastating set of injuries," Carver said.


Friday's massacre of 26 children and adults at the school elicited horror and soul-searching around the world even as it raised more basic questions about why the gunman, a 20-year-old described as brilliant but remote, was driven to such a crime and how he chose his victims.


D says: "Basic" questions? Yeah right. Brilliant and remote people are not "basically" analyzed. What I'm confused about is why he wasn't taken to a psychiatrist prior.


Investigators were trying to learn more about Adam Lanza and questioned his older brother, who was not believed to have been involved in the rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary. Police shed no light on the motive for the second-deadliest school shooting in U.S. history.


D says: No news is no news.


In tight-knit Newtown on Friday night, hundreds of people packed St. Rose of Lima Church and stood outside in a vigil for the 28 dead — 20 children and six adults at the school, the gunman's mother at home, and the gunman himself, who committed suicide. People held hands, lit candles and sang "Silent Night."


"These 20 children were just beautiful, beautiful children," Monsignor Robert Weiss said. "These 20 children lit up this community better than all these Christmas lights we have. ... There are a lot brighter stars up there tonight because of these kids."


D says: All children are beautiful, it's just that we might not notice until it's too late. Not only those beautiful victims but also those other beautiful kids. I guess the beautiful just can't stay beautiful in our society for some reason.

Lanza is believed to have suffered from a personality disorder and lived with his mother, said a law enforcement official who was briefed on the investigation. Authorities said he had no criminal history.


D says: Why didn't his mother call a doctor? What the hell was she thinking? Did she think hiding it was going to help her son? I don't think it really helped anyone.


Asked at a news conference whether Lanza had left any emails or other writings that might explain the rampage, state police Lt. Paul Vance said investigators had found "very good evidence" and hoped it would answer questions about the gunman's motives. Vance would not elaborate.


D says: Evidence or not the convict is dead and the deed is done. I just hate it when those killers kill themselves. Cowards. I guess it's a trend and history will just repeat.


However, another law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that investigators have found no note or manifesto of the sort they have come to expect after murderous rampage. The tragedy plunged the picturesque New England town of 27,000 people into mourning.


D says: He's a smart guy. He probably had planned the whole aftermath and investigation confusion out too. I guess it's CSI criminal quality. Intelligence is power but like all power it can always be abused.

"People in my neighborhood are feeling guilty about it being Christmas. They are taking down decorations," said Jeannie Pasacreta, a psychologist who volunteered her services and was advising parents struggling with how to talk to their children.


D says: You...just can't take away the holiday spirit you coward! You've taken much but you can't take Christmas. You can't take away community and humanity. It's not what happens, it's how we react. You can't take all the beautiful things away at once. If you add a bucket of mud into a clear ocean, the ocean is still clean. Stay strong, America!

Lanza shot his mother, Nancy Lanza, drove to the school in her car with at least three of her guns, and opened fire in two classrooms around 9:30 a.m. Friday, authorities said.


D says: Oh they were her guns, huh? Very smart. Giving access of guns to his mentally ill son? I don't trust people to think anymore.


A custodian ran through the halls, warning of a gunman, and someone switched on the intercom, perhaps saving many lives by letting them hear the chaos in the school office, according to a teacher. Teachers locked their doors and ordered children to huddle in a corner, duck under their desks or hide in closets as shots reverberated through the building.


D says: The custodian is a brave soul. Much respect. Now I think of our code red drills and how we always giggled throughout and had fun pretending to be scared. I can't imagine if one day it would be real.


Among those killed was the school's well-liked principal, Dawn Hochsprung. Town officials said she died while lunging at the gunman in an attempt to overtake him. A woman who worked at the school was wounded.


D says: Wow. What an amazing principal. A true heroine. She stood up to the murderer as if the school was her kids...


Maryann Jacob, a clerk in the school library, was in there with 18 fourth-graders when they heard a commotion and gunfire outside the room. She had the youngsters crawl into a storage room, and they locked the door and barricaded it with a file cabinet. There happened to be materials for coloring, "so we set them up with paper and crayons."


After what she guessed was about an hour, officers came to the door and knocked, but those inside couldn't be sure it was the police.


"One of them slid his badge under the door, and they called and said, 'It's OK, it's the police,'" she said.


D says: Can't imagine hearing the knocking and wondering if it's actually the police or not. I wonder if I would freak out and open the door if I were in the situation. Smart librarian.

The district superintendent said she was told another teacher pushed students in the kiln room until police let them out.


D says: Thank God for little storage rooms. There should be schools with secret underground tunnels of which only teachers should know about.

Investigators believe Lanza attended the school several years ago but appeared to have no recent connection to it, a law enforcement official speaking on condition of anonymity said. It was not clear whether he held a job.


D says: I thought childhood experiences usually connected to happiness. I guess not.


At least one parent said Lanza's mother was a substitute teacher at the school. But her name did not appear on a staff list. And the official said investigators were unable to establish any connection so far between her and the school.


D says: I personally blame his mom for everything. Period.

The law enforcement officials insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the unfolding investigation.


Lanza's older brother, 24-year-old Ryan Lanza, of Hoboken, N.J., was questioned, and investigators searched his computers and phone records, but he told law enforcement he had not been in touch with his brother since about 2010.


D says: How did he get his ID then?

For about two hours late Friday and early Saturday, clergy members and emergency vehicles moved steadily to and from the school. The state medical examiner's office said bodies of the victims would be taken there for autopsies.


The gunman forced his way into the kindergarten-through-fourth-grade school, authorities said. He took three guns into the school — a Glock and a Sig Sauer, both semiautomatic pistols, and a .223-caliber Bushmaster rifle, according to an official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The weapons were registered to his slain mother.


D says: Why does she have guns anyways?
Lanza and his mother lived in a well-to-do part of prosperous Newtown, about 60 miles northeast of New York City, where neighbors are doctors or hold white-collar positions at companies such as General Electric, Pepsi and IBM.


D says: Reason for guns please?

His parents filed for divorce in 2008, according to court records. His father, Peter Lanza, lives in Stamford, Conn., and works as a tax director for GE.


The gunman's aunt Marsha Lanza, of Crystal Lake, Ill., said her nephew was raised by kind, nurturing parents who would not have hesitated to seek mental help for him if he needed it.


D says: Kind nurturing parents with guns. Sorry I'm just totally confused.


"Nancy wasn't one to deny reality," Marsha Lanza said, adding her husband had seen Adam as recently as June and recalled nothing out of the ordinary.


D says: She probably hides many things, then.

Catherine Urso, of Newtown, said her college-age son knew the killer. "He just said he was very thin, very remote and was one of the goths," she said.


D says: That just alienated all goths...even more than before :(


Lanza attended Newtown High School, and several news clippings from recent years mention his name among the honor roll students.


D says: In looking for suspects I know what list to check now. Not just the disturbed but also the "honored".

Joshua Milas, who graduated from Newtown High in 2009 and belonged to the school technology club with him, said that Lanza was generally a happy person but that he hadn't seen him in a few years.


D says: I know so many people that play happy it's annoying now.

"We would hang out, and he was a good kid. He was smart," Joshua Milas said. "He was probably one of the smartest kids I know. He was probably a genius."


D says: Well geniuses are the only ones who could make weapons of mass destruction.

The mass shooting is one of the deadliest in U.S. history, and among school attacks is second in victims only to the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre, which left 33 people dead, including the gunman. Reaction was swift and emotional in Newtown and beyond.


"It has to stop, these senseless deaths," said Frank DeAngelis, principal of Colorado's Columbine High School, where a massacre in 1999 killed 15 people.


D says: Still, I feel being that the victims were mostly children adds a whole new level to the senselessness. Maybe the world IS ending in a week.


In Washington, the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence organized a vigil at the White House, with some protesters chanting, "Today IS the day" to take steps to curb gun violence. In New York's Times Square, a few dozen people held tea lights in plastic cups, with one woman holding a sign that read: "Take a moment and candle to remember the victims of the Newtown shooting."


D says: TODAY IS THE DAY YOU HEAR??? Why can't you just let go of your stupid business money and give in to saving children? Why can't something good be supported for once? Why does money outweigh morality here?
President Barack Obama's comments on the tragedy amounted to one of the most outwardly emotional moments of his presidency.


D says: But no real tangible action still.

"The majority of those who died were children — beautiful little kids between the ages of 5 and 10 years old," Obama said at a White House news briefing. He paused for several seconds to keep his composure as he teared up and wiped an eye. Nearby, two aides cried and held hands.


Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard described the attack as a "senseless and incomprehensible act of evil."


"Like President Obama and his fellow Americans, our hearts too are broken," Gillard said in a statement.


In Japan, where guns are severely restricted and there are extremely few gun-related crimes, the attack led the news two days before parliamentary elections. In China, which has seen several knife rampages at schools in recent years, the attack quickly consumed public discussion.


D says: I doubt there is anyone who isn't heartbroken about this. Then again...well I don't want to think about it.

In Newtown, Robert Licata said his 6-year-old son was in class when the gunman burst in and shot the teacher. "That's when my son grabbed a bunch of his friends and ran out the door," he said. "He was very brave. He waited for his friends."


D says: Really? Or was it for fame? If I were the kid I would barely remember whatever my instinct told me to do. But good for him if he did do so. Good for him.


He said the shooter didn't utter a word.


D says: Silence is...
Kaitlin Roig, a teacher at the school, said she implored her students to be quiet.


"I told them we had to be absolutely quiet. Because I was just so afraid if he did come in, then he would hear us and just start shooting the door. I said we have to be absolutely quiet. And I said there are bad guys out there now and we need to wait for the good guys to come get us out," Roig told ABC.


D says: What kids usually see in cartoons and stories, right? I guess real life is just not as nice.

"If they started crying, I would take their face and say, 'It's going to be OK. Show me your smile,'" she said. "They said, 'We want to go home for Christmas. Yes, yeah. I just want to hug my mom.' Things like that, that were just heartbreaking."


___


Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Pat Eaton-Robb and Matt Apuzzo and videographer Robert Ray in Newtown; Bridget Murphy in Boston; Samantha Henry in Newark, N.J.; Pete Yost in Washington; Michael Melia in Hartford; and the AP News Research Center in New York.


D says: I guess in general, this article was to further add to the emotional pain we all feel. There was little real evidence. It just made me feel sadder, and if victims' families read this looking for answers they don't get any but only more sadness. I can't read another article, but they keep coming like a landslide. On the news too. Sometimes I don't want to face the truth. But those kids and families did, and so must we.


Until next time, D.