Sandy Hook Facts

Today marked four years since the Sandy Hook shooting in Newtown, Connecticut perpetrated by Adam Lanza. I thought it would be nice to have a thread that recounted all the available facts and lesser known details of the crime. Today, I have only collected information about the shooting but in the future, I may try to add more facts that I've collected about other aspects of Lanza's life before that day.

Basics of the Crime

Sometime between 8:00 and 9:00 on the morning of December 14, 2012, Adam Lanza entered the bedroom of his mother Nancy while she was asleep in her bed. He took his Savage Mark II .22 caliber rifle and shot his mother in the head four times, at close range.

Lanza then armed himself with four guns (a Bushmaster XM15-E2S rifle, a Glock 20SF 10mm pistol, a Sig Sauer P226 9mm pistol and an Izhmash Saiga-12 12 gauge shotgun) and hundreds of rounds of ammunition and proceeded to drive to his former school, Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. He arrived shortly after 9:30 a.m.

He left the shotgun in his car and walked up to the entrance of the school and fired his rifle several times into the glass window pane located directly next to the front doors. At the time, the principal of the school, Dawn Hochsprung and school psychologist Mary Sherlach were in a meeting with several other staff members and a parent. Upon hearing the gunshots and shattering glass, they exited into the hall to investigate. Another staff member was following slightly behind. Lanza stepped through the broken glass into the lobby of the school where he quickly came upon Hochsprung and Sherlach and immediately fired upon them, killing both of them. The third staff member saw them fall and attempted to flee, but was shot multiple times. A fourth staff member on the far end of the hall suffered a less serious injury as she retreated into her classroom. The severely injured staff member crawled back to Room 9 and alerted the staff that a gunman was inside the building. The first 911 call was placed at 9:35 a.m. from this room.

At this time, Lanza entered the main office of the school but the staff had hidden themselves and he exited shortly after without firing any rounds. Law enforcement say it’s uncertain which room Lanza entered next, Room 8 or Room 10. In Room 10, Lanza shot teacher Victoria Soto and behavioral therapist Anne-Marie Murphy and five children. Both adults and four children died on scene and one was transported and died at the hospital. Nine other children escaped as Lanza was reloading and two were found unharmed, hiding in the bathroom. Room 8 was where most of the victims were killed. Along with teacher Lauren Rousseau and behavioral therapist Rachel
D’Avino, fifteen children were shot. Both adults and fourteen children died on scene and one was transported to the hospital but was pronounced dead. One child survived in this room. All the victims were killed with the Bushmaster rifle.

The first law enforcement officer arrived at 9:39 a.m. but proceeded with caution. A few seconds after 9:40 a.m., less than five minutes after the first 911 call, Lanza shot himself in the head with his Glock pistol in Room 10.

Facts About Weapons and Shots Fired

Lanza left the shotgun in his car but carried the Bushmaster rifle, Sig Sauer pistol and Glock pistol with him into the school, along with 300 rounds of .223/5.56mm ammunition with 10 magazines, 116 rounds of 9mm ammunition with 6 magazines and 90 rounds of 10mm ammunition with 6 magazines. He never fired the Sig Sauer pistol and fired the Glock pistol only once before his suicide shot. The weight of all the weapons and ammunition Lanza carried into the school was 30.47 pounds.

Lanza taped his rifle magazines together in a tactical configuration to facilitate quick reloading.

Lanza was carrying the Glock pistol in a drop holster attached to his thigh and the Sig Sauer pistol in his left pocket.

Lanza fired 8 5.56mm rounds from his rifle outside of the school. He fired 16 5.56mm rounds in the lobby and one in the north hallway along with a single shot from his 10mm Glock pistol.

In Room 8, Lanza fired 80 5.56 rounds. In addition to expended casings, law enforcement found 24 live rounds, two magazines with 10 and 13 rounds, and a single live round on the floor, along with a third empty magazine.

In Room 10, Lanza fired 49 5.56 rounds and one 10mm round when he killed himself. Officers found a total of 312 live rounds in this room, with 253 of those on Lanza’s body. In his pockets, Lanza was carrying 116 9mm rounds, 75 10mm rounds and 61 5.56mm rounds. In addition to this, they found 46 additional 5.56mm rounds, including 15 in the rifle, one on the floor and 30 in a magazine under Lanza’s body. They also found 13 live 10mm rounds, of which 9 were inside the Glock pistol and 4 were on the floor. They also found a single 12 gauge shotgun shell on Lanza’s body. Two empty magazines were also found near the rifle.

Several loose shotgun shells were also found in the school but it is believed that these were dropped by first responders.

The rifle was found a short distance away from Lanza with the safety in the “fire” position and appeared to be jammed to some of the first responders but was later found to have been functioning properly. The shoulder strap for the rifle was broken, but it is not known whether this occurred during the shooting or whether it snapped when dropped on the floor.

The Glock pistol, which was located near Lanza, appeared to be jammed. The Sig Sauer pistol was found unused in his left pants pocket.

There were at least nine shots that went through the windows of Room 10 and into the north parking lot but it is unknown whether Lanza had intentionally attempted to fire on someone or something outside of the building. Several cars in the parking lot were damaged by bullets.

Lanza left the Saiga shotgun in his car but law enforcement moved it to the trunk of his car for safety.

Details About the Crime

It is believed that Lanza drove past the school, about 24 hours before the shooting. Nancy Lanza had been away for a few days on a short trip and arrived home later that evening. It has been speculated that Lanza was doing reconnaissance for his shooting the following day but there has also been speculation that he had planned to commit the shooting the previous day and purposely waited until his mother was home.

When Lanza shot his mother, neighbors heard the gunshots but assumed that there were hunters in the area although they noted that shots sounded “unusually close.”

First responders and witnesses noted that Lanza was small and frail or anorexic-looking. One witness said she could not tell if the shooter was a woman or a man and a first responder said he appeared to be 19 years old but had the body of a 12 year old.

Responding police officers found the shooter in classroom 10 northwest of the hallway entrance dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. He was wearing a pale green pocket vest over a black polo style short sleeve shirt over a black t-shirt. He had yellow colored earplugs in each ear. He was wearing black cargo pocket pants, black socks, black leather shoes, a black canvas belt and black fingerless gloves on each hand. He had an empty camouflage drop holster that was affixed to his right thigh.

The school intercom system was accidentally turned on at the beginning of the shooting, broadcasting the sound from the front of the school to every classroom, which alerted other teachers to what was going on but also allowed people all over the school to hear shooting, crying and moaning from the victims. One of the students said it sounded like someone had a stomachache.

The first classroom in the hallway Lanza entered was Room 12 but Lanza bypassed this door, possibly because first grade teacher Kaitlin Roig had left a dark colored paper covering the door’s window from their last active shooter drill.

Two students that escaped stated that Lanza kicked in the door and did not say anything before he started shooting. Other witnesses say they heard Lanza cursing and admonishing the students in one room, as he ordered them around. Some of the phrases overheard were, “You’re an asshole,” “Come over here,” “Shut the fuck up,” “Look at me.” and “Look at them.”  One student apparently cried “Help me! I don’t want to be here,” and Lanza replied, “Well, you’re here,” which was followed by more gunshots.

During the shooting, custodian Rick Thorne walked through the school warning those in the halls to take cover in safe places, locking some doors from the outside, and alerting teachers to lockdown their classrooms if they hadn't already done it.

One of the children in Room 8, six year old Jesse Lewis, took an opportunity to warn his classmates when Lanza was reloading. He shouted “Run!” and several students ran past Lanza, out of the classroom. Unfortunately, Jesse was unable to escape himself and he was shot by Lanza and killed.

Victims

Nancy Lanza, 52

Dawn Hochsprung, 47, school principal
Mary Sherlach, 56, school psychologist
Rachel D'Avino, 39, teacher
Anne Marie Murphy, 52, teacher
Lauren Rousseau, 30, teacher
Victoria Soto, 27, teacher

Charlotte Bacon, 6
Daniel Barden, 7
Olivia Engel, 6
Josephine Gay, 7
Ana Marquez-Greene, 6
Dylan Hockley, 6
Madeleine Hsu, 6
Catherine Hubbard, 6
Chase Kowalski, 7
Jesse Lewis, 6
James Mattioli, 6
Grace McDonnell, 7
Emilie Parker, 6
Jack Pinto, 6
Noah Pozner, 6
Caroline Previdi, 6
Jessica Rekos, 6
Avielle Richman, 6
Benjamin Wheeler, 6
Allison Wyatt, 6

More information about the victims can be found on this website.
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Very informative and well organized post.

Thank you.

Tragic and chilling story.

Here is a compilation of witness statements from the shooting. There are many other accounts but I have focused on excerpts from the people who were closest to the attack and directly observed the shooter.

Statements from Natalie Hammond, who was shot several times by Lanza, and from the other people in Room 9.
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Statements from those in the office area, where Lanza briefly entered but did not attack anyone.
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Statements from various staff members whose classrooms were in the front hallway, including one teacher who was shot in the foot as she entered the hallway to figure out what was happening.
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Statements from students who escaped during the attack, some of which are second-hand accounts from the adults who found them running away from the school directly after the shooting and related to police what they were told by the children.
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Thank you so much for sharing this information. When I first heard about Sandy Hook, the conspiracy theorists had me hook, line, and sinker, until I found the section here. I thought Adam Lanza didn't exist. Boy, was I an idiot!

Good post.

Horrific stuff

I dont understand that a lot of people really think that this never happened or that it could be staged by the Gouverment. I mean,what are the "Hoaxers" expect? All avaiable Evidence and other Informations Shows clearly that on December 14th the Shooting took place. Witness-Accounts showed it,all the Pictures released showed it too. They even released the "Selfies" and Videos from Lanza,so they should no doubt that this crime happened. And some people(Alex Jones,if im right) even making money with this Tragedy.