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NewsTranscript
00:00All right, we're gonna go to a live news conference now. Lieutenant Paul Vance is
00:03on scene and begun their work. Um, honestly, the primary and first and
00:08foremost thing we've got to get done is the identification of all the disease.
00:12We have preliminary ideas, but we have to do it legally by law and we don't
00:15do it properly. We would expect that the lieutenant and I will be here first
00:20thing in the morning between seven and eight o'clock. Uh, and by that time
00:23we're hoping to have positive identification of all the deceased to
00:27provide you at that time. We will send you out a news release, a press
00:32release. If you're not on our email list, get it off the A. P. Um, primarily
00:37it's gonna include all the details we've given you for all the briefings
00:40that we've given you during this evening. I see no need to keep you all
00:45here tonight. Um, do what you feel is correct, but we will do no more
00:49briefings tonight. I'm going to again defer till till probably eight o'clock
00:54tomorrow morning. That's what we're shooting for. All right, a couple quick
00:57questions and I I'll help. I'll try to answer him if I can. Is there anything
01:01anybody needs?
01:03Child. It was a female was an employee of the school who was wounded, was
01:07injured. Uh, and it is doing well.
01:13Definitely. Yes. Yes.
01:18I don't wanna get into the details of it. Suffice it to say that the medical
01:20examiner has been on the scene with all the proper personnel and they'll do
01:25what needs to be done. And again, primarily what we're looking at right
01:28now is the positive I. D. So we can give some closure to people.
01:34We're hearing that so many
01:39this is gonna be a very painstaking process. I couldn't have said it better
01:43myself. This is, uh, way we investigate major crimes. And for those of you that
01:48don't aren't here on a regular basis, it's a very meticulous process. We
01:53leave no stone unturned. We take as much time as we need. We use all the
01:56resources that we have available to us. We will do that in this case, and then
02:01some. This is a case of extremely large magnitude, as you know, between Newtown
02:06and state police and our federal federal partners that will utilize and
02:10even some out of state partners will help us reach out of state. If anything
02:14crosses the state borders, it's gonna take. It's gonna take a long time. We
02:18will be processing this building, and I'm just speculating right now, but at
02:22least until Sunday, at least
02:27no. How are you managing the identification? We have a process in
02:32place and that we're going to, uh, to establish. We have a process established,
02:36I should say, in place that we're going to utilize to identify each individual.
02:46We were cautiously optimistic that we can have positive ideas by tomorrow.
02:50That's that's the professionals that are telling us that specifically the
02:54medical examiner and his team are investigators and working together.
02:58We're hoping to accomplish that.
03:01The families have been notified. You know, the preliminary identification
03:04been made and through process of elimination. Unfortunately, the
03:08families have been told. But again, we want to be absolutely positively sure.
03:12No doubt whatsoever.
03:16Yes.
03:20Well, certainly they're with us working with us. There are federal partners
03:23here from FBI, E. T. F. All offering services and any specialization that
03:28they have offering ability in case something crosses state lines. There's
03:32simply stated. Everyone's come together in the law enforcement community. This
03:36meant this is a massive investigation that many law enforcement agencies
03:40don't have to ever undertake. So we're certainly, uh, Newtown State Police
03:44working side by side and utilizing any resource that we may need. And we're
03:48very appreciative of all the help that we're getting.
03:52Yes.
03:57No. At this point in time, we were confident that we have the shooter in
04:01this incident.
04:07I'd rather not do that. Quite frankly, uh, I've been a trooper a long time
04:13and my lieutenant to my left. There's been law enforcement a long time, and
04:17it's just something that serves no useful purpose. I'd rather not get into
04:19that. It's a horrific scene, um, between our mutual experience that we've
04:24never seen anything like this. Uh, it's heart wrenching for us as it is for the
04:28families, and I just would like to just leave that it, uh,
04:36I think I think what we gotta do and it should be understood. We're looking at
04:39that. You know, we're looking at all the history. We're we'll go backwards
04:43as far as we have to go in this investigation, and hopefully we'll
04:46stumble on answers and we'll hopefully not not develop many more questions.
04:50But we want to be able to build a process and build a story. It's an
04:53investigation like this is like a puzzle. All right, we want to put this
04:56puzzle together and form a complete picture so that everyone without any
05:00doubt whatsoever can can truly understand what occurred. So what I'd
05:03like to say is that, uh, we'll we'll come back tomorrow in the morning.
05:09Let's say eight o'clock in the morning, um, to let you know how we progressed
05:13overnight. As we prepare the list of positive identifications, I want to do
05:18one list. I don't want to do a piecemeal. I don't want to do a couple
05:21here, a couple there. I want to do one final list. The minute that's done,
05:24we'll be here with it, and we'll we'll also post it on our website so that
05:28it's available to everybody. All right, what's your timeline for the other
05:32time?
05:33Lieutenant of your officers
05:35with this situation, the way they were able to get those kids out of there
05:38and keep them calm, get as many out as quickly. These guys, when they when
05:43they when they got to the door, we're first in the door and the surrounding
05:47PDs and the troopers, uh, their training kicked in. This is something
05:51that you train for. You train for you plan for you work towards. You hope
05:54they never have to use and their training kicked in. They saved a lot of
05:58lives. They did a great job. They did a great job. Extremely proud.
06:03I'm sorry.
06:06Well, I'd rather do that in the morning. And once we have positive
06:09identification, even of the shooter, we want to have all that all that
06:12information, and hopefully we can. We can tie up some loose ends for you
06:15first thing in the morning, but I'd like to leave it where we are right
06:18now. And, uh, you know, we'll fill. We'll fill in the void tomorrow as
06:22much as we possibly can. Is your timeline for the other crime scene
06:25the same? I'm sorry, young lady.
06:28Yeah.
06:31No. The Connecticut Medical Examiner is managing the cases, and he did
06:36request some assistance and equipment that's been brought in for him. But,
06:40uh, he's there. They're there working now.
06:49It in a nutshell was it was 911 calls that came into Newtown State Police,
06:54and the response was instantaneous. Okay,
06:58from Yeah, from from school sources. Multiple calls. Yeah, I'm not sure. And
07:02you know, I'd be. Yes, I believe so. But I don't know how many of her. That
07:06was a nice way.
07:12We've we've been in contact with any authorities are investigators with any
07:17authorities that can assist them in furthering their portion of the
07:20investigation. I do know that New Jersey's been mentioned. It's been two
07:25or three different locations have been mentioned, but not to read anything
07:28into that. If there's something significant about reaching over a
07:31state line or about doing something, you know, that may be related to this
07:35case, we're not gonna hide it from you. We'll make it available to you. We'll
07:38certainly provide you with that information. But, you know, don't read
07:42something into it just because you hear that we've gone to authorities in
07:45another state. That doesn't mean anything, really.
07:50How are you delegating
07:52this scene in regards?
07:57It's working fine. We've got people on extended shifts. Some people are gonna
08:01work extra hours and suffice it to say, uh, everybody's everybody's all hands
08:07on deck. We'll get this done and we'll do whatever it takes to accomplish this
08:10in a timely fashion.