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00:00This is an ABC News special report.
00:09Good morning.
00:10We have breaking news.
00:11We're going to pause now for an ABC News special report.
00:13For those of you just joining in, we've been having coverage of the shooting at an elementary
00:17school in Newtown, Connecticut, the Sandy Hook Elementary School, in which 27 people
00:22were killed, 20 of them children.
00:25We're about to have a news conference outside the firehouse where all of this has been taking
00:29place.
00:30Speaking to reporters, there will be Lieutenant Paul Vance from the state police, as well
00:35as Lieutenant George Cinco from the Newtown Police Department, updating all the reporters
00:40and of course the entire country on the details of the shooter, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, and
00:45the shooter's mother, who appears to have been the motive for sparking this deadly rampage.
00:50Once the police officers go to the bank of microphones, we'll take them.
00:54Obviously, this has been devastating news for the entire nation to process, as well
00:58as this community, a small community inside Connecticut.
01:02This elementary school had just started school.
01:04It was shortly after 9.30 in the morning yesterday when the gunman entered the school.
01:09Still a lot of questions as to how Adam Lanza gained entry, whether someone buzzed in to
01:14let him in or whether or not he broke glass to enter the school.
01:18He came in, we are told, with at least three weapons, used those weapons to open fire on
01:23two different classrooms in which teachers and children were killed.
01:28Let's listen in.
01:29I'll take a couple minutes and bring you up to date with the progress that we've made
01:33in this investigation.
01:35With me is the chief of police from Newtown, the field operations commander of the state
01:41police, and my counterpart here from Newtown Police Department.
01:46As you know, the victims have been positively identified by the office of the chief state's
01:53medical examiner.
01:55They're still in the process of doing some of their work.
01:57And as soon as that work is completed, we will be prepared to release in writing to
02:03you a formal list of names, birthdates, and information.
02:10There is one, well, there's a couple major factors.
02:13Number one, when we release that list, and we would ask you again as we did yesterday
02:18at the request of all of the family members, they have asked for you to please respect
02:25their privacy.
02:26They're going through, as I know you understand, a very difficult and trying time.
02:32We have in fact, under the auspices of the chief and the colonel, reassigned and continue
02:38to assign a trooper to these folks to help to maintain that solitude.
02:45So again, I would ask you, and I'm pleading with you, as you know, this is an extremely
02:50heartbreaking, difficult thing for these folks to endure, to please abide by their requests.
02:57In addition, for the townspeople in the town of Newtown, a crisis intervention team from
03:04Yale New Haven Hospital has been established here in the community, and they can be reached
03:09via telephone.
03:11That telephone number is 203-270-4283.
03:18And again, they're open and they're available to anyone in the community who may have the
03:25need to discuss, to talk, to talk about this incident in its entirety.
03:35I have the ability to take some questions.
03:37I just simply want you to understand that we still have major crime detectives and Newtown
03:43detectives working at the scene in the school.
03:47That is not completed.
03:48That probably will not be completed for at least another day and a half to two days.
03:53And I'm putting a time limit on it, and it could take longer.
03:56As I explained to you in previous press conferences, we've done everything we need to do to literally
04:02peel back the onion layer by layer and examine every crack and crevice of that facility.
04:09And that does not include or exclude, I should say, the outside of the building.
04:14The outside of the building is also a part of the crime scene, every single vehicle in
04:18that lot.
04:19So it's going to be a long, painstaking process.
04:22We actually have three teams now, three major crime teams in the community.
04:26Our local partners are working with us, and we're going to move that and expedite that
04:31along as quickly as possible.
04:33We had a meeting this morning, and that was a delay with the superintendent of schools.
04:38She will be hopefully in the not-too-distant future up here to talk briefly about some
04:45of the issues that she has encountered.
04:48The minute the medical examiner is done, and I mean that sincerely, the minute he is done,
04:53he is coming here, and we will, again, provide all the detailed information, or as much detailed
04:59information as we can relative to the work that his office did both overnight and continue
05:05to do as we speak.
05:07Again, as far as actual specific questions, I'll take a few, but I have to tell you, there
05:14are certain things that were just simply cards that were holding close to our chest in this
05:18investigation until, so nothing's taken out of context, and we have continuity of all
05:23the information that we provide.
05:24Yes, sir.
05:25Were there reports that there were other guns other than what you found in the school, or was this accurate?
05:32No, that's not accurate.
05:34The weaponry that was recovered by our investigators, recovered in close proximity of the deceased,
05:41and again, we're investigating the history of each and every weapon, and we will know
05:46every single thing about those weapons, and I know follow-up questions are legally registered,
05:50who are the owners, and so on and so forth.
05:52That's all being done by the investigator that's assigned to that task.
05:56Is the shooter another member?
06:01Yeah, again, we're going to allow the medical examiner, we're going to wait for the medical
06:05examiner to come in and provide the identities of the shooter, of all the deceased in this
06:11investigation.
06:12Senator, have you found any writings, any emails, any messages that would enlighten
06:17you as to what his motive was?
06:20Certainly is a very good question.
06:22The answer I can give you on that is that our investigators at the crime scene, the
06:27school, and secondarily at the secondary crime scene that we discussed, where the female
06:32was located deceased, did produce some very good evidence in this investigation that our
06:39investigators will be able to use in hopefully painting the complete picture as to how, and
06:45more importantly, why this occurred.
06:47What type of evidence is it, sir?
06:49We're not going to name the evidence, we're not going to talk about the evidence.
06:52It's simply stated it's part and parcel of the investigation.
06:55I don't want to take it out of context of what's being done.
06:58Is he working in the building?
07:00Is there a witness that knows about the fact that he lost his way into the school?
07:04We have established the point of entry.
07:07It was, I can tell you, it's believed he was not voluntarily let into the school at all,
07:13that he forced his way into the school, but that's as far as we can go on that.
07:16Are there any broken windows in the school?
07:18Are there what?
07:19Yeah, quite frankly, that's something, again, if you take it out of context, it sounds suspicious,
07:25but as the rescue crews arrived, the active shooting teams entered the school.
07:32They entered the school from several different points, and it necessitated forcing their
07:37way in to gain access to perform the rescue and to save as many students and faculty as
07:41they possibly could.
07:43Hence, law enforcement broke many windows.
07:45What about the murder scene, where his body was found?
07:49What's that?
07:52The other crime scene?
07:53Yeah, the secondary crime scene, as I told you, was a crime scene that was discovered
07:56pursuant to the investigation.
07:58Once we had a tentative identification on the suspect, we began doing a great deal of
08:03work, again, peeling back the onion, everything we could find out about that suspect, including
08:09and not limited to relatives, friends, co-workers, former students, location of residents, and
08:16all those areas had to be, people had to be interviewed, and all those areas had to
08:20be examined.
08:21Hence, that caused us to discover the secondary crime scene, which was a private residence
08:25with a sole female deceased.
08:26The evidence in the house, do you think it will provide you a motive or an explanation
08:32as to why he went to the school?
08:33To be determined, the detectives will certainly analyze everything and put a complete picture
08:38together of the evidence that they did obtain, and we're hopeful, we're hopeful that it'll
08:44paint a complete picture as to how and why this entire incident, unfortunate incident,
08:48occurred.
08:49On the other crime scene, did you find a man or a woman?
08:52I'm sorry?
08:53There was one woman who was shot and survived.
08:56How is she doing?
08:57She is doing fine.
08:58She has been treated, and she'll be instrumental in this investigation, I'm sure you can understand.
09:05That I don't know.
09:06That I don't know.
09:07Can I present that the shooter in this case appeared to break into the school?
09:14Forcibly forced his way into the school, that would be accurate according to investigators,
09:19yes.
09:20And does it appear that he used weapons to break into the school?
09:22I don't want to be too specific, because quite frankly, I don't know.
09:26So I would simply, I've been informed that he was forcibly entered and was not allowed
09:31to enter, if you will.
09:33What I'd like to do is, I'd like to get the next portion, if you will, of today, and I
09:39don't want to keep you here all day.
09:40I want to try and do this as expeditiously as we possibly can and get as much information
09:44out to you.
09:45We'd like to get the superintendent definitely wants to come up with the town leaders to
09:50discuss certain areas of her responsibility, and then we certainly want to get the medical
09:56examiner up here.
09:57Again, we'll do that as quickly as we possibly can so we can get the list of IDs and all
10:01the information out to you.
10:03For any of you that are new here today, a lieutenant and I have put together a written
10:07press release.
10:09We'll provide those to you at my vehicle.
10:11Please don't rush my vehicle.
10:13We have, we should have enough for everyone, and if not, we'll bring more next time we
10:17come up.
10:18And it just lays out the basic details of everything leading up, up until today.
10:22All right, we will, we will try.
10:25I don't want to give you a time, but we will try to be back here, I'm going to say, within
10:28the hour.
10:29And I'll make notification to some of you that, that I can, that we're on the way.
10:32All right.
10:33Yes, sir.
10:34One question.
10:35Does the mother of the shooter have any connection to the school?
10:39Well, you have to understand that after the shooting that we did a complete and thorough
10:43search of the entire area, the neighborhood, with our local partners, everything, everything
10:48was examined.
10:49If we found anyone that was in the woods, cutting wood, they were going to be, they
10:53would be detained pending the investigation.
10:55So there were no other arrests that were associated with this, with this investigation
11:00that occurred.
11:01Okay.
11:02So what about the mindset?
11:03So what about the mindset of them?
11:06I would, I would have you address that with the, with the superintendent of schools.
11:10Okay.
11:11We can, she can, she can give you that answer.
11:13We will, we will be back.
11:15I need to get, if I don't get here, we're going to be here quite some time.
11:18I know you have a lot of questions and I think the people that are coming here that we're
11:21bringing here to speak to you can really answer these questions and put a lot of, uh,
11:26take a lot of the mystery out of, of what we've been dealing with for the last 24 hours.
11:29Okay.
11:30We will, we will be back.
11:37And Lieutenant Paul Vance from Connecticut State Police wrapping up his press conference.
11:40Obviously some news emerging there.
11:43First of all, they have positively identified all of the victims.
11:46Remember 20 of them, young children, they'll be releasing the list of those names, which
11:51I'm sure looks like a kindergarten or first grade class list, uh, with all those names
11:56and ages and dates of birth, pleading with the media to give those family privacy.
12:00Um, those families grieving an unimaginable loss at this point, giving a hotline number
12:05to anybody in the community needing therapy, counseling over the phone.
12:09A lot of people we know will be reaching out to that.
12:11Also, this is key.
12:13All the weapons were apparently found inside the school near the body of the shooter.
12:17At least three weapons.
12:18There's been good evidence for a motive for the shooting that was found at the, uh, the
12:22victim's home that he apparently shared with his mother, uh, where he had apparently before
12:27going to the school and opening fire on all those children, uh, killed his mother by firing
12:31on her at point blank range.
12:34Also evidence that he forced his way into the elementary school after speculation that
12:38perhaps he'd been buzzed in and that finally, uh, the sole survivor in the shooting, one
12:44person survived.
12:45That shooting will be crucial to the investigation going forward.
12:49She is doing fine and obviously will have valuable evidence for police going forward.
12:54This has been a special report from ABC News.