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Continued Coverage of Connecticut Elementary School Shooting; Parents of Surviving Students Talk about the Shooting

Aired December 15, 2012 - 16:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome, everybody. We're coming to you live this afternoon as we continue to cover an absolute tragedy here at Connecticut, the Connecticut elementary school shooting. Lots to update you on as in the last few minutes we have had an update from the Connecticut state medical examiner, and also the state police here giving us some of the latest details about this case.

You just heard a moment ago Deb Feyerick giving us the very latest information coming to us from - details about the shooter. And, of course, at this point there are really no more words, only hope, I guess, in some ways that the families of those who have lost everything, their prize possession, their children. Families here in Newtown, Connecticut will some day be able to find their way through this terrible grief and then the nation will come to grips with yet another terrible tragedy.

So we begin today with what we know so far about this school shooting. All the victims have now been removed from the school. They have been identified, postmortems have been done. Sources told investigators that the alleged shooter, Adam Lanza, was involved in an altercation at Sandy Hook Elementary School with four adults on Thursday and that three of those adults were killed on Friday.

But we just heard an update a moment ago coming to us from the law enforcement source where he said that they had no information, in fact, about a confrontation. So that is some contradictory information about what happened there. We also know that Lanza supposedly tried to buy a gun at a sporting goods store near Newtown on Tuesday. He was unsuccessful. No details at this point, though, on why exactly he was unsuccessful.

He lived alone with his mother, Nancy, who he killed before he went on that rampage at the school. His mother was not a teacher, we now know, at the school. But she may have had some kind of a role at the school as a substitute teacher or possibly an aide. Lanza did not have his brother Ryan's identification on him when, in fact, his body was found. That was other contradictory information that we were hearing yesterday.

So all of this at this point leaves us with many more questions and answers about a possible motive of the suspected shooter. Mary Snow has a closer look at that for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Shortly after Friday's horrific shootings, police and S.W.A.T. teams descended upon the Lanza home. You can't see it. It's behind me. And it's closed off by police. And investigators are now suggesting that they are piecing together information leading to possible answers about how and why this happened.

Lieutenant Paul Vance of the Connecticut State Police saying that in his words, "good evidence is being recovered" but he did not go into detail. In terms of the weapons used, we do know that three weapons were recovered at the scene of the shooting near the suspect's body. There were two handguns and a semi-automatic rifle.

CNN has been reporting that those guns were purchased by his mother, Nancy Lanza. And there's not much we do know about Nancy Lanza. We spoke to a neighbor earlier in the day, and she said that she knew her, but there was nothing out of the ordinary that she could see.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She was like a normal - anybody else in this neighborhood. You know, decorate the house, and the house was always, you know, pristine. She was just like any other housewife.

SNOW: As for Adam Lanza, former classmates describe him as being a smart student, someone who was quiet, kept to himself, a neighbor who knew him in recent years described him as troubled.

Mary Snow, CNN, Newtown, Connecticut.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: We want to bring in chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Let's first talk about the children. Post traumatic stress. As the day goes on, you see some of the parents walking around with their - their children, coming to some of these memorials that are sort of being set up. Is that a good thing or is it a better thing to not bring the children around?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Everyone we've been talking to - we went to the crisis center, which has been set up here at another elementary school, Reed Elementary. And the people that you talk to over there say it is a good thing. And, in fact, if you go to that parking lot - I didn't know what to expect there. Obviously, it's set up at a different school. But it was full, Soledad.

And what I also noticed, is that people were going in, families, small children, and they were staying for a long time. So this wasn't a sort of quick in and out sort of thing. The whole elementary school set up as a counseling center. So psychiatrists, psychologists, children's counselors specifically in there. So they're encouraging this. And the way they sort of put it to me is you think about the community sort of as an individual itself. Meaning that the idea that people all sort of realize they're in it together, at least does something to mitigate those feelings of isolation which can be so problematic. So good thing, is what I'm hearing. Everything that you're seeing around you right now, this is - I think what they want. O'BRIEN: What will they do for the children? I mean Kate Bolduan had a remarkable story of a little boy. She talked to his parents who ran past the shooter as he was opening fire, killing his teacher and killing some of his classmates. I mean how does a child like that who at this moment she described as sort of calm and matter of fact and helpful to detectives. But one has to imagine down the road, he's going to be completely traumatized.

GUPTA: Yes. And PTSD is something we're used to talking about with adults. But you know, I did a little bit of research, because there are some studies on looking at kids specifically. And what you find is after this sort of thing, especially if someone has seen the violence, this is a big sort of pivot point. Being in the school, obviously, problematic. Being in the community, obviously of concern Even in this country.

But if you see something, the rates are much higher, as you might guess. 77 percent of people, even three to four months out, had evidence of PTSD. Now, children tend to be more resilient, and by that, you know, getting back into some sort of normal pattern of behavior seems to make a big difference. But you know, Soledad, we talk about this stuff all the time. There isn't a lot of precedent. We would like to say we have tons of studies to base this on. What you and I are talking about, what we're reporting on is a fairly unprecedented situation in terms of its scope with this age children.

O'BRIEN: There was a question that was thrown to Lieutenant Vance. He's the guy who has been obviously holding all of these press conferences, and they were asking about the mental state of the alleged shooter, who is - they still have not done a postmortem on him, and they're releasing very little information. Is there a connection between these mass killings and people who are mentally ill? Is it - other people have said, I know his brother said that he had a kind of autism. He told authorities apparently that. Is there any correlation between autism and any kind of violence? My nephew is autistic and I don't know of any studies that link that.

GUPTA: I think there aren't any studies. And two points here. First of all, I wouldn't think of autism as a mental illness. It is a neural developmental disorder. And second of all, you know, if you look at the studies pretty closely, what you find is while there is a possibility of more outbursts, sort of reactive violence, the idea of planned violence where someone actually plans out something, you know, methodically, that just doesn't correlate. In fact, the best study, one everyone quotes, a study of 132 patients, not that big a study, but one of the best ones out there, only three people in that 132- people study had any evidence of, you know, specific violence. And even that again was mainly reactive. Not this sort of planned violence. I don't think there is a link.

O'BRIEN: As you know, if you go online, the discussion and debate around this terrible tragedy is categorized into a gun debate. Into a debate about bringing awareness to mental health and a lack of help for many people and mental health issues. Lots of cuts there. And where the two of those things intersect. And, again, not a lot is known about the shooter at this point so it's hard to say. But talk to me about the mental health aspect. We have done a lot of conversations about guns and gun control. Many cuts we have seen in this country on mental health. And it's hard for people who are mentally ill sometimes to get help.

GUPTA: Absolutely. And I'm glad you bring it up. Because you know, I've reported on this quite a bit, and I know you have, as well. But there is this whole notion of something they call parity. And what that means is that do you treat mental illness the same as physical illness. Do you treat it the same as someone with diabetes or heart disease, even if they go to the doctor. With mental illness, oftentimes it's very hard to even get the diagnosis because of lack of resources. And even harder to get treatment, because of lack of resources.

So you know, it isn't always just missing the warning signs. Families may see the warning signs. Community members may see warning signs. But the question is what do you do after that? Are there resources in place? And I think these cuts that you talk about - again, we don't know what happened here specifically. But with regard to -

O'BRIEN: Or that mental illness is involved in any way.

GUPTA: Right.

O'BRIEN: Or even that autism is involved in any way, because we have not that much information about the shooter.

GUPTA: That's right. We don't know. But with regard to mental illness, more sort of globally, yes, I mean, it's incredibly challenging to get that. And that parity issue is something that's come up, you know, with regard to the Affordable Care Act, with regard to how we spend resources going forward. Because it just - it isn't on par right now with physical disease. I see that as a doctor all the time.

A lot of times we can get these patients cared quickly for things that you and I can quantify, heart disease, diabetes. If you think mental illness is on the same level, it isn't in this country.

O'BRIEN: I guess it's the intersection, at least for me, right? Between mental illness and sort of access to weapons is really what ends up becoming the terrifying combination in a lot of these cases. We've covered Columbine. We've covered Virginia Tech. We've covered a number of these horrific shootings. And there never seems to be - people always say today is not the day to discuss it. And I'm going to disagree. I think that we have to discuss it. Both mental illness and weapons that are available so readily in this country.

GUPTA: Yes. You know, I think certainly as a doctor, you know, I think you do seize the opportunity to talk about these things. And with regard to mental illness, I mean, I think it just gets short shrift every single time. So the fact that people are paying more attention to this issue right now, it may light a little bit of a torch. And I think you're right. It is that intersection. I don't know exactly where that intersection is going to lie, exactly how much we're going to focus on mental illness versus guns or vice versa, but I think you're absolutely right.

O'BRIEN: You have three daughters. They're sort of in the same age range. What do you tell them? Do you let them watch TV? Do you tell them not to watch TV? Do you explain why you're here reporting or do you not tell them things?

GUPTA: I haven't -- they haven't been watching television. But they still know. And I think that's one thing that's probably changed since our kids were born, Soledad. We think by turning off the television that could insulate them. It doesn't. My seven-year-old still knew because social media and her friends in school are talking about it. She called me. I was actually in Los Angeles. She called me on the phone and we talked. And I said to her, you know - I was very transparent. I mean, I didn't expose graphic details and things like that. But I think I was just very honest. It was probably one of the most honest conversations I had with my seven-year-old.

O'BRIEN: What did she want to know?

GUPTA: She wanted to know if this could happen in her school, was I think her primary thing. And she said schools were safe. They were supposed to be safe. That's what she asked me.

O'BRIEN: How do you answer that? Because schools aren't safe. Exhibit a is this school is not safe.

GUPTA: I said for the most part they are safe. But obviously this happened. I said this never happened to me when I went to school. It never happened to your mommy when she went to school. But it obviously happened here. And we're going to do our best to try and keep you safe. But, yes. I was just very honest I think with her. I think not being honest probably is the wrong answer. As much as it's maybe your tendency to try and protect as a parent. But it just doesn't seem to be the right way to deal with it.

O'BRIEN: My kids always want to know if someone died. Did anybody die. That's always their question.

GUPTA: And I told her - yes, she knew that. And I confirmed that for her.

O'BRIEN: Such a terrible story. Sanjay, thank you. We appreciate your insight on this.

GUPTA: Absolutely.

O'BRIEN: A couple things we now know about this case. Police are telling us that the gunman forced his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School. No one let him in voluntarily. The school recently installed a new security system. In fact, the principal who came to that school in 2010 has created that new security system so doors would lock at 9:30 a.m.. Visitors were supposed to ring a bell and then they would have to get clearance from the front office to walk through those locked doors. They would have to be let in.

We don't know whether the shooter burst into the school and started shooting before or after 9:30 a.m.. We want to get to Lou Palumbo. He's a retired Nassau County police officer in New York, and now heads a security agency. So Lou, you know, we keep having these discussions, right? How do you prevent this tragedy? And some people will say it's about guns and other people, as Sanjay and I were just talking about, will say it's about mental health. And other people will say, well, you know, examine the school or put a guard or police officer or something at the school. What do you think the answer is?

LOU PALUMBO, FMR. NASSAU COUNTY POLICE OFFICER: Well, I said in earlier discussion, Soledad that I don't believe in a single causality. I think that there are a number of issues that have to be addressed. Clearly, we have to address the gun issue in our country. I am a supporter of the second amendment. But I'm not a fool. We have a problem. We have a problem with mental health. If we're really going to revert to putting armed security at every school in our country, I think we have a rather huge undertaking. And I'm not convinced that's the method. I do think that for schools, though, they should have a type of safe room which could be used as a classroom.

In other words, you change or upgrade the quality of the door, and the locks. Therefore, it makes it very difficult to penetrate them or breach them. And as far as the entry into the school, you know, the schools are on the right track. They want to buzz you in. The problem, again, and as we saw in this instance, this individual was determined to enter the school. He got in. I don't think that we're going to come to any type of overnight solution to what transpired here today.

I think we have to really just wrap our arms around the gravity of it. And in our hearts know that we want to prevent it. And come to a common ground instead of making this a political issue. Which is what it's becoming right now. And also, an educational issue for the public. This thing about weapons in our country is disturbing. It's irrefutable. There are approximately 300 million of them that we keep repeating this number. We need to address who gets them. How they get them. How the people are vetted when they acquire them. Training issues. Education as to safeguarding. Dealing with people in your household who, if they have some type of mental or emotional handicap, preventing them from getting access.

And should you, in fact, even have them in your home if you have someone who has got a mental or emotional issue. I mean, there's a lot of topics to discuss here. The heart-wrenching thing is to think that we have 20 babies that are now deceased. And we're all wondering, is this something that we could have done to have prevented this. And I'm not sure there is an answer there. You know, maybe - and this is just conjecture. If we didn't have guns, and someone was so determined, how do we know they wouldn't get in an automobile and drive into a school yard, which, in fact, it happened one time, a couple decades ago. You know, you almost don't know how to respond to this incident, because it's such a shock to your system.

But I do know this. We need to do something. And we need to become sensible and abandon these extreme positions we have in the NRA and the extreme left liberal. Live with the fact that weapons are here to stay, these firearms, and how do we now responsibly regulate possession of these by individuals. Let's start by knowing a little bit more about you, other than the fact that you have no criminal history. We should psychologically profile every individual who thinks they need a handgun, especially of the type of this glock or sig sauer.

O'BRIEN: But Lou?

PALUMBO: Yes, ma'am.

O'BRIEN: How realistic is that? I mean do you honestly, and I understand you're giving solutions, but I have covered so many of these tragedies. I have covered so many of these tragedies and we all wring our hands, and are very upset and people cry and there's a raging debate going on. And then it kind of goes away until the next one when we - it all comes back again. And I don't know that any of that is going to happen, honestly. If history is any judge, it's not going to happen.

PALUMBO: I really think that the federal government needs to get involved in this whole gun acquisition issue. It seems to be a federal issue, because it's a constitutional issue. It's a constitutional right that we've decided upon. I think the government should take the prerogative out of the hands of the state and mandate psychological screening for anyone that wants firearms. Especially these specific types of high-capacity automatic pistols that were mainly produced for the purpose of military and law enforcement. And if you really think you need an assault rifle - and tragically, even though I don't necessarily agree with it, I understand where people or how people get to that threshold to where they do think they need these weapons.

Just look at the world we live in. The topics that we're saturated with on a daily basis through the media. Threat of terrorism. School shootings. Shootings in malls. Shootings in movie theatres. This stimulates or triggers reactions from people.

O'BRIEN: Yes, yes, you're right.

PALUMBO: Soledad, and listen to this one statistic. 44 percent, approximately, after the shooting in Aurora went out and bought firearms, because their perception - their perception was that this is a solution in keeping themselves safe. We need to address this. But I think the government needs to wrap their arms around this, and say, "Listen, we're going approach this intelligently. Instead of approaching it politically."

O'BRIEN: Well, it will be interesting. The president has called for sort of a response but no one is exactly sure what exactly that does mean. Lou Palumbo. He's a former detective in Nassau County and now runs a security organization. Thanks, Lou, appreciate it.

I want to get right back to Deb Feyerick at CNN headquarters. Deb?

DEB FEYERICK, CNN ANCHOR: We have some new information that's coming out of those who were killed in this tragedy. The youngest was six years old. The oldest was 56. That's according to information released by the state police. 18 of the victims are described as female. We know there were at least four educators. The principal, the psychologist, two teachers that have so far been identified. And of course, the mother of the alleged gunman. Eight of the victims were male. That's what we're learning so far.

And the bodies of the children and of some of the adults, those are expected to be released to the families today. The bodies of the mother of the alleged gunman and the gunman, those will be held until tomorrow. That's what we're learning so far. The youngest, six years old. Oldest, 56. Many of the victims first graders. Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Deb Feyerick updating us on the information we now know about the scene inside that school. We hear that they have - they finished this afternoon with the postmortems on the children. And they are expecting - at least according to the medical examiner, that the postmortems on the shooter and his mother, that those should be done sometime tomorrow morning. We know that, in fact, investigators will be looking at Sandy Hook Elementary School for at least another day or maybe even two days. They're trying to kind of piece together of really what is a horrific puzzle. What exactly happened and why did it happen, to give us a better understanding of how it went down on Friday. Let's get to CNN's Josh Levs. He's got a virtual look at this elementary school. Josh?

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, hi again, Soledad. Folks, there is a lot of information about this horror coming at your today, bombarding you. It can be a lot. Well, I want to tell you right now is that there are a few very specific questions that I can drill down for you that will not only help show what you investigators need to learn here, but will also potentially have repercussions for schools around the country in terms of security systems. Let's zoom into this map so you're seeing it more closely. This is a 3-D look at this school itself. And as you look at it, keep in mind, it has about 600 students total and it has about 50 members of the faculty.

Now, authorities have told us, have said that this entire thing is now a crime scene. They said they're scouring the entire building right here, and in the words of police, each and every car is being investigated, as well. We don't know exactly what they're looking for. But I want to trace you through a few steps here. We now know that the day before this happened, this gunman went to that school, had an altercation with four adults. The next day, came back, killed three of them. That's according to a law enforcement source with knowledge of the investigation. So exactly what happened there, whether it could have presented any warning sign, very important.

Next thing for you to know, police have said today that they believe they got the first 911 call around 9:30 a.m.. Now, each minute, each fraction of a minute in a case like this is very important. And here's why. As we understand it, the security system at this school involving locking down of doors gets turned on at 9:30 a.m. so was this shooter in there before or after that security system was turned on? Well, the authorities say he did have to break his way in.

So how do you do that? If the security system is on, how does a person with multiple guns break his way into a school without anyone noticing or potentially setting off an alarm? Key question right there. Next thing for you to know. There are some shattered windows around this school, which might give you an answer to the previous question. But police said not so fast.

When authorities were called to the school yesterday, they needed to burst their way in multiple units. And that could be quite possibly is the reason that windows have been burst open. So where exactly - let's zoom in one more time. Where exactly was the gunman in this parking lot or around the school, in advance, as people were coming in? How early did he get there? What time did he physically enter the building with respect to when that security system was turned on? And how did he do it? All of these are new central questions about the time line of what has happened, based on what the authorities are telling us today.

Now, we do believe that the shooting itself took place in one corner of the school, one general area of the school. So we don't know what other evidence they might find in all of the cars and throughout the parking lot, throughout the building. We do know that they're scouring it for absolutely anything. So Soledad, those are some of the key questions we're looking for answers to right now. Hopefully in the next few days.

O'BRIEN: Yes, absolutely. One thing I'm going to tell you, where there is some conflicting information to that, Josh, is that when we heard our final press conference, there was no information, we were told by the state police, about a confrontation. So we have now heard both versions of that. Some saying there was an altercation or there was no confrontation.

Josh Levs with an update on some of the questions tat they're hoping to be able to answer as this investigation goes along. I thank you for that. Got to take a short break. We'll continue our coverage of this terrible disaster, this horrific mass shooting at a Connecticut elementary school right after this break. We'll be back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARYANN JACOB, LIBRARY CLERK, SANDY HOOK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: They were asking what's going on. We said we don't know, our job is to stay quiet. It may be a drill, it may not but we're just going to stay here -

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you didn't know at that point.

JACOB: We knew. Because I called the office and she told me there was a shooter.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody. We've been updating you with the very latest as we continue to get updates from law enforcement officials. One thing they have told us in the last hour is that there was no confrontation. There was some word that in fact the alleged shooter, Adam Lanza, had had a confrontation at the school in the days before the shooting, and that somehow that that would be linked to the shooting.

We were told in fact by a Lieutenant Vance with the state police said that he had no information about any confrontation that was in a press conference that he wrapped up roughly 40 minutes ago or so. Adam Lanza allegedly targeted kindergartners and first graders, is what we now know. Up to six guns involved. He also dressed up in a military- style vest and black fatigues, as Alex described.

Authorities say they found three guns near Lanza's body in a school classroom. All three guns were registered to his mother, his mother, who was also found dead in her home. Investigators recovered three other rifles. It's unclear at this point exactly where those weapons were found.

We want to get to Mike Bouchard. He's the former ATF assistant director in Washington, D.C.. Mike, we know that you supervised the ATF's response a tragic killing spree about a decade ago, a story I covered a lot, the Washington, D.C. beltway sniper. So unfortunately, this is something you know a lot about. I want you to walk me through some of these weapons.

In the press conference, the medical examiner said that everybody was shot with the same rifle. Which would be I guess the Bushmaster. So give us some more information about the Bushmaster 223 semiautomatic rifle.

MIKE BOUCHARD, FORMER ATF ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: That certainly changes the facts in this case. Obviously, the Bushmaster is typically used in a longer-range shooting. It has more accuracy from a distance. It's odd that he would take the long gun into the school, because he could do just as much damage with the pistols. The one advantage with the rifle is typically you can load 30-round magazines typically during some of these tactical situations. They'll stack the two magazines, one upside down, finish shooting 30 rounds, push a button, flip the other one over as quickly as you can turn it, and now you have another 30 rounds to shoot.

So the tactics - what's odd with this whole thing that I find odd is we've heard about the mental health issue and the gun issue. It's really a triad. Why are these young males - where are they learning these tactics, where are they learning to dress? Where are they learning the reloading tactics? How are they learning to bring these type of weapons and do these preplanned attacks? And many of them are learning from video games or movies and, you know, I think that needs to be part of the discussion, because somebody who is mentally unstable isn't necessarily going to kill someone. Somebody who owns a gun isn't necessarily going to kill someone. But when you put these three things together, it can be a recipe for disaster.

O'BRIEN: You know, I think you're right. And I think our culture is very - is very contradictory, right, on one hand we decry violence and yet our movies are so violent. We talk about mental health, but we don't necessarily financially support it. We talk about guns and the aftermath of events like this, but we don't actually do anything about it. So I think you're right.

So look, why would someone collect a semiautomatic rifle? I mean, his mother has been described by some as a collector. Why would someone have that kind of a gun? I mean, the thing is massive looking.

BOUCHARD: The Bushmaster, actually, that's one that is used by the D.C. beltway snipers. But it is - it's considered a sporting weapon. Some people say it looks like an assault weapon, looks like a military weapon. But it has characteristics that make it suitable for sporting purposes. Therefore, it was never banned under the old assault weapon ban, nor is it banned by the Connecticut assault weapon ban.

But as far as why somebody would want one of these, a lot of people just because they can have one. Some people think it's sexy to have one of these things. Some people feel it's for self protection. But it's within the law to have one so people feel they can do that.

O'BRIEN: Mike Bouchard with us this evening. Thank you so much.

We want to get right back to Deb Feyerick. She's got a look at some of the other stories that are making news this evening -- Deb.

FEYERICK: Thanks, Soledad.

Well, doctors are monitoring Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for a concussion. She hit her head after she fainted. Her office says Clinton was dehydrated from a stomach virus. She is resting comfortably at home right now. She'll work at home next week following her doctor's recommendations. Clinton will not testify as had been scheduled Thursday about the deadly attack in Benghazi, Libya.

In South Africa, former President Nelson Mandela is recovering from surgery to have gallstones removed. Mr. Mandela has been in the hospital since last weekend due to a recurring lung infection. Officials say the operation today was a success.

In Egypt, President Mohamed Morsi cast his ballot today for a new draft constitution. Voters there deciding whether the controversial document will go into effect. The days leading up to today's vote have been marred by many protests and violence.

Back to you, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: We know that there was a report that a relative of the shooter said that he suffered -- the shooter suffered some, quote, "kind of autism."

We want to get to Dr. Max Wiznitzer. He's a pediatric neurologist. He's an autism expert at Rainbow Babies and Children Hospital which is in Cleveland. And he provided some more clarification for us on this.

Thanks for being with us. I appreciate it. I think this brings us into a conversation about mental illness and about something else which I guess is developmental, which is autism. My nephew is autistic, so I know a little bit about this. There are many people who would say, well, what is a kind of autism -- which is quoting the gentleman who apparently told investigators that about the shooter.

What do you think he's talking about?

DR. MAX WIZNITZER, PEDIATRIC NEUROLOGIST: Well, if you look at the classic definition of autism or autism spectrum disorder, it's a developmental problem, which means you're born with a tendency, but it may show itself in the first few years of life. It's a developmental problem that affects your socialization, affects how you can communicate or interact with other people and has associated with it some repetitive behaviors or major areas of fascination or interest.

More recently, people have actually taken this terminology and expanded the concept of autism spectrum disorder to really suggest problems with social skills or social behavior in general. Sometimes without really digging down deep and asking what's driving them.

And I think in these situations, when someone makes that kind of a statement, we have to ask -- are they talking about someone who has really been analyzed and evaluated carefully, with a clear-cut diagnosis, or just a label being put on because it's a label of convenience?

O'BRIEN: Sanjay earlier was telling me there is no correlation that he knows of any studies that he's looked at, that that would indicate that people who are autistic, who have autism, might be connected with any kind of violence. And that mental illness is a completely different category. And I think sometimes, frankly, people use them under the same category, as you say, kind of glom them under the same title.

We don't know much about the shooter. They still have not officially identified him here in Newtown, Connecticut. But I guess I'm trying to understand. Is there -- does he have a mental illness, and is this something that could be -- people could know about and not -- and he could have been struggling to get treatment?

WIZNITZER: Let's first get to your first point, which is in autism, between 25 and 50 percent of individuals can have aggressive or violent behaviors. But in those situations, it's almost always reactive. Either something hurts them or they do something impulsively or because they get upset about something, or because they're anxious, because their moods are not right. It's reactive, it's on the time at that spot.

But we're talking about a situation here where something was preplanned, was deliberately thought out, drove a distance to do it, and basically targeted individuals who were clearly nowhere involved with anything that's going on. That's a different type of aggression. That's not reactive aggression. That's more like preplanned aggression that's present. That's what we may see in individuals with mental illness. And in individuals with mental illness, you don't find the features of it for the first time on the day they do such a heinous action such as this, such a bad action such as this. They're symptomatic for a long period of time beforehand when things are brewing. The question we have to ask is, what made him basically go over the edge and I think as you have asked rightly, could something have been done before happened?

For all we know, he may have been under some care but things may have changed in this time period. We need more information.

O'BRIEN: Doctor, I think you're right. We do need more information on a lot of fronts. Very little, as I pointed out, is known about the shooter at this point here. Law enforcement is not even identifying him yet. They say they wait for the postmortem to do that officially.

But we do -- we're beginning to get a little bit of information about him. And so, we're bringing it to you as we get it.

We've got to take a short break. And when he come back, we'll continue to bring the latest on this terrible, horrific shooting that has happened at a elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.

We're back in just a moment. Stay with us.

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O'BRIEN: One thing that is very clear is that this is a very hard story to wrap our heads around. Why would someone shoot up an elementary school? And imagine what the parents had to be going through when they got a robocall, telling them that there was a shooting and lockdown at their kids' school.

Earlier this morning, I talked to the parents of two children who were in that school. Those two children lost their principal and some of their close friends are dead. Here's what they told me.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK PHELPS, PARENT OF 2 CHILDREN AT SANDY HOOK: When I saw those teachers, when I found the two children and we are devastated and heartbroken for the poor families who did not have that moment in the firehouse of finding their children, and we can't even imagine, and our prayers. And the entire community is heartbroken.

But when I saw those teachers and I locked eyes with each of them separately, when I found the two children, if I could go back, I would -- I would embrace them, because I had no idea what they had gone through. But it was actually handled very well, because I can't imagine the pandemonium that would have been going on in that firehouse, from the parents searching for their children.

If anybody there had any idea the level of what had happened yesterday, people just simply didn't know really what was going on. They just knew that their children had been in a dangerous place, and that those that made it to the firehouse were, thank God, safe. O'BRIEN: What are you tell your son, who is a first grader? What will you tell your daughter who is a third grader? Do they have I didn't any idea of how scope of how bad it is?

LAURA PHELPS, PARENT OF 2 CHILDREN AT SANDY HOOK: You know, I think they do. We haven't really let on. We haven't said much. I mean, this is shocking, so this is new to us. And we're definitely going to talk to counselors today over at the Reed School. We're going -- we're going to live at our church at Saint Rose.

And we're just going to learn what to say before we say it. It's really tricky. And for my third grader, little bits and pieces are coming out now.

O'BRIEN: She's handling it a little -- it sounds like she is not talking as much about it.

L. PHELPS: No. Little things are coming out now, where she -- she heard a lot. They all heard and saw things that our children should not hear or see.

And so we just -- they know that it was a bad man. And we said we're just coming to talk to people. They want to know what happened over at Sandy Hook. They don't know -- they don't know that they've lost their friends and their principal.

N. PHELPS: It's become apparent that our 6-year-old has lost close friends. And he's very unaware of that right now. We don't know how to exactly approach it with him at this point. We're just kind of guarding them from the TV. When they fell asleep last night, and -- and the experts would come on the TV to discuss how you talk to your children, we were -- we were very attentive. Like, oh, let's listen, or let's watch this.

And we realized watching it, it had nothing to do with us. It had everything to do with the rest of the country watching it, but not the people that were involved and the children that were actually in the school. So, it's important for us to -- we realize, as this goes on, it's important for us to take advantage of the counseling.

O'BRIEN: Yes, many people have sent messages to me to tell people like you and the people who have lost their children just sorry they feel for them.

L. PHELPS: Yes, I mean, your heart -- this is a feeling -- it is unspeakable. It is like reaching into your insides and pulling them out. I mean, when things happen to your children, and to other people -- I mean, I can't look at my children's faces now without seeing the faces of every one of their school mates, and all of their friends.

And everything that they're doing right now or saying or talking about Christmas and I'm just thinking -- their friends should all be here. And it's just -- it is such -- it is so heavy. So heavy on your heart and --

O'BRIEN: The nation feels that way too. L. PHELPS: Yes. The outpouring of love has been tremendous. I mean, people are calling from all over the world. And we're going to need that now. We're going to absolutely need that to be there as a community.

We love Sandy Hook. I mean, this is such a great place. And the people are wonderful. And we're just going to have to really embrace each other and open our hearts and open our arms and open those church doors and just get everybody praying and together.

Because -- I mean, I think this is something we will get through. I don't think this is something we will ever, ever get over.

N. PHELPS: I would like -- I would like also to say that we always felt blessed that our children were at Sandy Hook School. It was an absolutely beautiful school, fantastic educators.

The principal who, God bless her, lost her life, was just -- a very special person. And all the parents knew that. So it's a very -- it's shocking beyond belief that this has happened. And it's -- I mean, we're just grief-stricken, heartbroken for those families.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: The Phelps family, with two children, a first grader and a third grader, grappling now with how to deal with this aftermath and feeling so lucky at the same time. Their children were among the survivors of this horrific, horrific shooting.

We're going to have more to talk about as we continue. Those children were at the school at the time of the shooting, certainly have a lot to talk about and questions they're going to want to ask and answer as they would like to get answered.

Let's get to Dr. Jeff Gardere. He has been talking a lot about what answers parents need to be giving their children. He's a clinical psychologist.

So, Jeff, you know, I did that interview with the -- those parents a little bit earlier today. And they were struggling. They literally did not know the words to use to be able to tell their first grade son that some of his classmates and his good friends had been killed.

How do -- how do people who are in the situation handle this? How do those of us who are outside of it and have children that are dealing with it handle it as well?

DR. JEFF GARDERE, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST: Well, I heard what they said, and it was very poignant. They had listened to the experts such as myself giving advice, if you have children who have heard about this, how to speak with them.

This is a very special population. They're the ones that are at the ground zero who have been traumatized. And I would tell those parents, and this is specifically for you there in Connecticut, as part of Sandy Hook, the most important thing is let your children know that you, as the parents, have been very hurt by this. And that you want to cry, and it's OK to cry, and it's OK to grieve.

But most important, they, as the parents, Soledad, have to provide the stability of just being there with their children, hugging them, holding them, letting them know that they are safe right now, and just listening to whatever it is that those children want to say. And just being that ear more than anything else.

O'BRIEN: Is it your expectation that everyone in this community or -- will have PTSD? Or will it just be those that had children in the school system? I mean, can people who didn't experience it but are experiencing it from a distance also get PTSD?

GARDERE: Well, I would say that the people who are part of the school, part of that community, they're looking at the statistics. You've heard it from Dr. Sanjay Gupta. There's almost a 70 percent probability that they will have some sort of PTSD. It will last for months, if not years.

However, the important thing is the mobile crisis units are there. Trained police officers, social workers are there. So the quicker you address the issues and let them speak about this, the better the prognosis in the future.

For those parents who are dealing with their kids, who are outside of that community, the most important thing is that you listen to what it is that they know, ask them what they know, ask them what they want to discuss. And it's not one conversation, Soledad. It's a series of conversations while you're doing things that they enjoy. Just be there and listen to what it is that they have to say, and let them know that they will be safe in their schools.

There are no guarantees, but empower them with the knowledge they can be strong and they can sympathize and empathize with those children that have lost their lives. But as for them and their families, we are there for them. The stability is there.

O'BRIEN: Dr. Jeff Gardere -- Jeff, thank you so much for the information, the advice. We appreciate it.

And we're learning some new details about the suspected shooter's mother, Nancy Lanza. We are told that she liked to garden. She played a dice game called bunko with her girlfriends. A neighbor said the Lanzas looked like a nice and normal family.

Police say, though, that Nancy's son, the shooter, killed her in her Newtown home before he went on to the elementary school.

And CNN's David Ariosto joins me now.

You had an opportunity to go to the neighborhood where not only is it center of an investigation, there are many neighbors who have told you about the family, as well. What are they telling you?

DAVID ARIOSTO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You speak to neighbors, it paints a picture of this affluent community that is in southwestern Connecticut. And it's -- this woman who often would be with her boys, they moved to the area in 1998. They -- she divorced with her husband years later. But they would often attend these parties, these dice games in which they were gardening in the back and talk about landscaping.

The common joke that one of the neighbors mentioned, you're doing all this landscaping behind the house, nobody is going to see this. But it was this idea that this woman was a -- a pleasant, pleasurable person to be around. She was someone who was involved in the community.

And you talk to residents here, and it's really -- this sense of this tight knit community. We talk to other people earlier in the day, and many people say that people move to this area because of the school system. So, to have something like this take place at a school, particularly in an elementary school, has just rocked this community.

O'BRIEN: You know, there are so many people who ask the question why. Were neighbors able to tell you anything about the boys in the family, specifically the young man who would go on to be the shooter in this horrible massacre?

ARIOSTO: One of the interesting things they mentioned is that they didn't see the boys. They moved there in 1998 and lived there really up until this week. The father divorced years later. But the boys were not individuals they saw very often.

And this picture that you also get is that you have this one individual who is gardening and playing cards and playing dice. And at the same time, you have what appears to be several guns within this house, some of those guns being high-powered weapons.

So, it's this conflicting account. And one of the neighbors probably said it best, is that there's something missing here.

O'BRIEN: It's interesting. It appears, right, she would be a collector, some of the people we have spoken to, when you look at the caliber of the guns and the range, the kinds of weapons she had, that she would be a collector.

Did the neighbors talk about her passion for collecting weapons at all? Did they know about it?

ARIOSTO: You know, I asked that question specifically and categorically, each neighbor I talked to said no. So it's -- you know, it paints a bit of a confusing picture when you have these type of weapons that apparently were hers, and were used in this terrible tragedy.

O'BRIEN: Oh, it's crazy. So there was a question about early on when this story broke, there was word she was a teacher in the school. And we now know that was not the case. That she was not a teacher in the school, but that she might have some affiliation with the school.

What have you been able to learn on that front?

ARIOSTO: You know, when she divorced -- there was speculation within the community that she might have used her maiden name and may have done some substitute teaching. That was later pretty much batted down by most of the school authorities we talked to and others.

So it was really unclear what she was doing. She certainly had taken some time off after working in finance. And she had essentially got very much into gardening, very much into landscaping. What her connection was with the school, if any, is unclear.

O'BRIEN: It is such -- so many questions to be asked. We've heard so much contradictory information throughout -- really, it's been what, 30-plus hours now that we've been covering this story. And there's so many questions and so few answers about the shooter, his family, any motivation.

You know, I guess as law enforcement says, they will release more information about him as soon as they're done with that postmortem, which will be tomorrow morning. And we'll be waiting for that.

David Ariosto, thank you so much for the report.

No doubt, though, here today so many people are overwhelmed with so much pain. Just to talk to people in the streets who have come to the makeshift memorials where they're laying flowers or lighting vote active candles, missing the loved ones, people they know they have lost, trying to understand what's happened. Trying to make sense of something like this probably is impossible.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LT. J. PAUL VANCE, CONNECTICUT STATE POLICE: This is a very, very tragic, tragic scene for everybody. Certainly our hearts are broken for the families here.

JANET VOLLMER, TEACHER, SANDY HOOK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: Well, you know, about 9:30, 9:40, we heard noises and the announcement system was still on. So -- it didn't go off, so you hear what sounded like pops, gunshots.

DENISE CORREIA, DAUGHTER ATTENDS SANDY HOOK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: You heard a teacher managed to take two children out of the hallway, pull them into the classroom, lock the door, and move everybody over to the other side of the room.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We just told a little boy about his sister now, just as -- who am I going to play with, he said. I have nobody to play with, he said. So --

AIMEE SEAVER, PARENT: When your first grader goes to bed and says, "Mommy, is anyone from my class last year, are they OK? Are they all OK?", and you look at them and say I'm not really sure.

GOV. DAN MALLOY (D), CONNECTICUT: You can never be prepared for this kind of incident. What has happened, what has transpired, at that school building will leave a mark on this community, and every family impacted.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: We are on the verge of wrapping up our coverage right now, but we're going to continue, obviously, CNN's coverage of this tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut.

Deb Feyerick, there are so many questions yet to be answered. We'll know more tomorrow, certainly, when law enforcement tells us and the medical examiner's office tells us, that they will finish the postmortems that will be done on the shooter and his mother. And that will bring an end to the -- I guess the investigation into the bodies, at least, at the crime scene.

FEYERICK: Sure. Yes, and the thing is also, people are saying, well, what was the motive, what is the motive? What would drive somebody like this to kill his own mother, and then to open fire on a school filled with innocent children?

The answer, it's almost irrelevant. The fact that it happened is what's so devastating to so many people. And even the town saying, in the nicest way possible, you know, let us be, let us heal. I think everybody wants to heal. If that's even possible, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Yes, there's no question about that. I don't know that they'll ever know really why. You know, people have told us -- they might know the how. They might eventually be able to understand with law enforcement laying out the -- how it happened. But they may never actually understand the why.

Deb Feyerick, thanks so much for being part of this coverage. CNN will continue the coverage of this tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut.

We'll take a short break first, and we're back with this coverage right after the break. Stay with us.

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