Search for answers begins after Connecticut school massacre

Residents of the small Connecticut community of Newtown were reeling today from one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history, as police sought answers about what drove a 20-year-old gunman to slaughter 20 children at an elementary school.The attacker, identified by law enforcement sources as Adam Lanza, who once attended Newtown High School, opened fire yesterday day morning at Sandy Hook Elementary School, which serves children aged 5 to 10. He ultimately killed at least 27 people, including himself.

Police said another adult was found dead at a related crime scene in the town, which many media accounts indicated may have been the shooter's mother, Nancy Lanza.

State police said they hoped to have more information by Saturday morning, including confirmation of the victims' identities. More than 12 hours after the shootings, police began removing the bodies from the school and bringing in parents to make identifications, NBC News reported.

Symbolizing the national grief over the massacre of the schoolchildren, President Barack Obama choked up and wiped away tears in a live national address in which he said, "Our hearts are broken."

He called for "meaningful action" to curb gun violence.

The holiday season tragedy was the second shooting rampage in the United States this week and the latest in a series of mass killings this year, and is certain to revive a debate about U.S. gun laws.

'JUST BRUTAL'

Newtown, an affluent town about 80 miles (129 km) northeast of New York City, was mourning its dead in community vigils.

"We're just praying - just need to pray to God that this does not happen again, no matter where," Amelia Adams, 76, said on her way into St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church with her husband Kenneth, 81.

The church, just a couple of miles from the site of the shooting, was packed inside and out on Friday night with a crowd estimated at more than 1,000 people.

"It was just, it was brutal. I can't think of a better word. It was just brutal, to have to witness the pain today," Monsignor Robert Weiss said after the service.

Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy told reporters late on Friday that he never thought something would happen that would equal the grief he and others felt after the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

"Evil visited this community today," Malloy said.

Brian Re, a 36-year-old engineer, has lived near Sandy Hook Elementary for seven years and has a 4 1/2-year-old girl he is planning to send to the school next year.

"It's a good town, but the massacre happened here," Re said.

The chaos at Sandy Hook struck as children gathered in their classrooms for morning events. A state police spokesman said the shootings took place in two rooms. Witnesses reported hearing dozens of shots; some said as many as 100 rounds.

Former classmates of the shooter remembered him as someone who dressed more formally than other students, often wearing khaki pants, button-down shirts and at times, a pocket protector.

"(His mother) pushed him really hard to be smarter and work harder in school," said Tim Arnone, 20, who first met Lanza at Sandy Hook.

PUSH FOR CONTROL

The death toll exceeded that of one of the most notorious U.S. school shootings, the 1999 rampage at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, where two teenagers killed 13 students and staff before killing themselves.

The New York Times reported that Adam Lanza used a Sig Sauer and a Glock, both handguns, and said police also found at the scene a Bushmaster .223 M4 carbine, a rifle, that they believe belonged to him.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, founder of the advocacy group Mayors Against Illegal Guns, said it was "almost impossible to believe that a mass shooting in a kindergarten class could happen.

"We need immediate action. We have heard all the rhetoric before. What we have not seen is leadership - not from the White House and not from Congress," Bloomberg said. "That must end today."