adminHook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, which teaches children aged 5 to 10.
He murdered 26 people at the school before turning the gun on himself, as well as killing one other person — his mother — at their family home.
The shock of the tragedy that befell Sandy Hook elementary school has fuelled fresh national soul-searching about the role guns play in American life and prompted strong calls for greater controls.
The small but affluent town of Newtown was ranked the fifth safest city in America by the website NeighborhoodScout.com based on 2011 crime statistics.
Connecticut Chief medical examiner H Wayne Carver II said at a press conference Saturday that in his three decades in practice, the shooting was the “worst I know of, any of my colleagues having seen.”
Dr Carver said that each of the 26 victims was shot between three and 11 times, with two of the victims being shot at incredibly close range. The bullets had pierced everywhere, he said — heads, extremities, and torsos.
“This is a devastating set of injuries,” he told reporters in the emotionally charged news conference.
Dr Carver said that the alleged shooter Adam Lanza was able to reload extremely quickly during the Friday morning blitz because he taped two magazines together.
The shooter mainly used a military-style assault rifle belonging to his mother, Nancy, to carry out the horrific massacre.
Dr Carver went on to say that parents had to identify their children through pictures, a process that was intended to minimise shock.
President Barack Obama was expected to join an interfaith vigil in Newtown yesterday and also lead national mourning after this latest massacre that has revived calls for a debate on gun control.
Several world leaders have expressed shock and horror at the massacre of the 20 small school children and the six staff. — dailymail.co.uk/AFP/HR.
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