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Nancy Grace

School Massacre: Names of Victims Released

Aired December 15, 2012 - 20:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LT. PAUL VANCE, CONNECTICUT STATE POLICE: The victims have been positively identified.

DISPATCHER: 6-7 Sandy Hook school. Caller is indicating she thinks that someone is shooting in the building.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So I am hearing the gunfire in the hallway, and I`m thinking in my mind, I`m the first classroom. Why isn`t he coming? You know, I`m thinking we`re next, and you know, and in my mind, I`m thinking, you know, as -- as a six-year-old, seven-year-old, what are your thoughts, what are your -- you know, and I am thinking that I have to almost be their parent. I have to tell them, you know, so I said to them, I said I need you to know that I love you all very much. And that it`s going to be OK. Because I thought that was the last thing they were ever going to hear. I thought we were all going to die.

MARYANN JACOB, LIBRARY CLERK AT SANDY HOOK: 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. There was pounding on the door and they said it was the police, but we didn`t want to open the door.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The police came and started knocking, and obviously I was completely beside myself, and I said I don`t believe you. You need to put your badges under the door. So they put their badges under the door.

VANCE: He was not voluntarily led into the school at all, he forced his way into the school.

DISPATCHER: I need units in the pool. I have got bodies here.

NANCY GRACE, HOST: Good evening, I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us. Breaking news tonight, Newtown, Connecticut. The nation in shock when a crazed gunman dressed head to toe in black goes on a deadly rampage at a local K-4 elementary school.

The unspeakable massacre leaving 27 dead, most of them little children.

Investigators working into the night to I.D. the tiny bodies and forensically to determine exactly what happened. The shooter, 20-year-old gunman Adam Lanza, had access to at least six high-powered guns, even trying to buy another gun just hours before the horrific shooting spree.

And tonight, is a motive revealed? And I`m saying motive? A motive to murder elementary school children as young as five years old? There`s a motive for that?

Straight out to Rita Cosby, investigative reporter joining me there on the scene. Rita, what more have we learned? Hold on, Rita`s satellite is down. Let me go straight out to Beth Karas. Beth, what have we learned? I understand that the tiny bodies were removed in the dark of night.

BETH KARAS, LEGAL CORRESPONDENT, "IN SESSION": Yes, indeed.

GRACE: What more do we know, Beth?

KARAS: They have all been removed. They are with the office of the chief medical examiner of the state of Connecticut for postmortem examination to determine the cause and manner of death. That means there will be autopsies performed on all of them.

We do also know now that there was an altercation between the shooter and some folks at the school the day before. And that may be the motive.

GRACE: You know what, Beth, that`s incredible to me, that he was actually -- the shooter, the gunman that takes down 26 people -- 27 dead in all -- had an altercation at the school. Beth, why was he hanging around the school? Because now we know his mother is not a teacher there. That`s what we were first told yesterday, that that was his connection to the school. That`s not his connection to the school.

KARAS: Correct. She is not a staff teacher, apparently. Maybe minor substitute teacher. We don`t know. That`s the big question, what his connection to the school was, why he was there, and he had an altercation with four adults; three of those adults dead the following day. But was he trying to work there? We don`t know.

GRACE: Now out to Steven Kalb, a reporter with the Connecticut Radio Network. Steven, everything is developing so quickly. And everything we learned last night, we know this -- we know that the mother did not teach there. So I`m still investigating and my team investigating, what is his connection to the school? We know that glass was shattered. We know that magnetic doors were used as a security reason at the school. We also know, Steven, that he tried to get into the school before the shooting.

And I`m wondering, Steven Kalb, if that was not what caused his altercation with some of these teachers. Steven, it seems as if this was a targeted thing. He didn`t just go in and start shooting. He had an altercation with specific teachers before the day of the shooting, then went back for revenge. And the little children, the tiny children, were collateral damage.

STEVEN KALB, CONNECTICUT RADIO NETWORK REPORTER: It is possible. They were saying yesterday that there had been some altercations between him and one or two people who worked at the school, although they are still out there someplace, the discussion whether or not in fact the mother was a substitute teacher at the school. And that hasn`t been confirmed or denied yet. She might have been a part-time, occasional, day hire substitute. So that is still in the air. But it appears as though he arrived at the school, had -- tried to use the buzzer to get in, could not do so, and that`s when he had the altercation with the principal, at which point they were doing morning announcements and someone kept the microphone open, so they could hear the altercation, and then the gunshots.

GRACE: Joining me now -- I think I got her satellite -- everybody stay with me. I think I have got Rita Cosby joining me there on the scene with Beth Karas. Rita, what more have you learned?

RITA COSBY, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: Well, a law enforcement source has told me, Nancy, that there was no suicide note left behind, and that they are gleaning some information about this Adam Lanza in particular.

I asked, what do we know about him? And I was told, we know what he suffered from, that he had some mental illness. They would not elaborate further. So they are talking right now not just to people who knew him, whether it was at the school, also doctors, socially, everything, trying to glean a picture of who this guy was.

GRACE: You know, it`s been thrown around that he had autism. I`m having a very difficult time blaming this whole thing on autism. Isn`t it true, Rita Cosby, that he has in fact being described as a genius?

COSBY: Yes, and in fact, neighbors have said he was brilliant, he was bright, he kept to himself. They did describe him as a little off. By the way, this law enforcement source, I did ask was he autistic? They did not confirm or deny that. So that has not been ruled out at this point.

GRACE: Rita, what do you know about some type of confrontation he had that is also being thrown around as a motive? You know, there is no motive for gunning down tiny children. There is no motive, period. So I don`t like the kind of talk that that was his motive. But I would like to find out what if anything you`ve learned about an altercation he had within a couple days before he started shooting.

COSBY: All I had been told is that there was some issue with the school, that they are trying to get to the root of it.

I do know that he had an altercation with the principal that day. And when he came in, I was told -- and we reported this yesterday -- that when he came in, it was forced entry. Two sources had told me that he actually went through the glass, that he shot through the glass, put his arm in, and that`s how he got inside. But that he did have some arguments at least the day of the shooting. They say right now it`s not absolutely clear, I`ve been told, of the motive, that they`re trying to determine.

One of the things I did ask, Nancy, because I found out that the mother may have been unemployed, was there some financial issue? Was there something like that? I was told that it probably was not financial related.

GRACE: We`re also learning that there was not only the three weapons, the Bushmaster, the Sig Sauer and the Glock, but that this guy had tried to buy weapons within hours of the shooting and was turned down.

I want to go out to a special guest joining me, everyone, who is an expert in all of these weapons, Craig Meyer, entry team leader, which is extremely significant, with SWAT.

Craig, what can you tell me about these weapons?

CRAIG MEYER, SWAT ENTRY TEAM LEADER: Well, Nancy, if you can look at the weapon that I am holding up here. This is a Bushmaster, it`s an assault rifle platform weapon, .223 caliber. From what I understand, this is one of the weapons that was -- similar to one was found in his vehicle. A very dangerous high-powered rifle.

I also have here, Nancy, a Glock, similar to what the shooter had used. This Glock is a semiautomatic handgun. It`s minimally capacity of the rounds, it`s 9 millimeter, it`s 19 rounds minimally. There is magazines, Nancy, up to 30-round capacities on these weapons. Also, 30- round magazines for the AR-13 platform. You can go up to 60 rounds, 250 round beta mags. So there is a lot of dangerous equipment available to these shooters.

GRACE: Luckily, within the hours leading up to this shooting, he was turned down to even more weapons he was trying to buy. And what is so ironic, we learned overnight, that he murdered his mother. She was found shot in the face. These weapons belonged to her, and the family would go out together for target practice.

We are learning in the last hours the names of the victims, the tiny victims. The little bodies taken out in the dark of night last night. These are the victims.

Charlotte Bacon, Daniel Barden, Rachel Davino, Olivia Engel, Josephine Gay, Ana Marquez-Greene, Dylan Hockley, Dawn Hochsprung, Madeline Hsu, Catherine Hubbard, Chase Kowalski, Jesse Lewis, James Mattioli, Grace McDonnell, Anne Marie Murphy, Emily Parker, Jack Pinto, Noah Pozner, Caroline Previdi, Jessica Rekos, Avielle Richman, Lauren Russeau, Mary Sherlach, Victoria Soto, Benjamin Wheeler, Allison Wyatt.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All the wounds that I know of at this point were (inaudible), the long one, the long weapon.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The rifle was the primary weapon?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. I believe everybody was hit more than once. Everybody -- death was caused by -- everyone we have completed so far was caused by gunshot wounds. And obviously, the manner of death in all these cases has been classified as homicide.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Welcome back. We are bringing you live coverage tonight of a continuation into the investigation of the school shooting tragedy. Thank you for being with us. We are taking your calls.

As you just heard, the medical examiner stating every one of these 26 victims were shot more than once. All of the victims sustaining between three to 11 gunshot wounds. Two of the victims at close range.

Most of these students between 5 and 10 years old. The students, the murder victims, between 5 and 10, each victim sustaining three to 11 gunshot wounds. Some of the victims shot at close range.

We are taking your calls. Out to Kevin in Connecticut. Hi, Kevin.

CALLER: Hi, Nancy.

GRACE: Kevin, I understand you went to school at Sandy Hook?

CALLER: Yes, I did. All four years, between kindergarten to fourth grade.

GRACE: Kevin, did the doors have the same magnetic quality as a security measure when you were there?

CALLER: When my mom had to come to the school, like she had to press a button and they would open the door when I was there, and I`m pretty sure it`s the same as it was.

GRACE: So when you are hearing, Kevin, that the shooter shot through the glass, reached in and opened the door, does that sound possible to you?

CALLER: I think it does. Yes.

GRACE: Kevin, did you know the principal or any of the victims?

CALLER: Well, it was the principal`s first year teaching. Like, I`m pretty sure it was recent. But it`s like, the psychiatrist I knew, and I`m not sure about any of the little kids. Did they release the names yet?

GRACE: Yes, they have, they have released the names, as a matter of fact, in the last hours have released them. The principal was killed while lunging at the gunman, Dawn Hochsprung was the principal there, and she was a mother as well, losing her life.

Kevin, what do you make of this? In my mind, the school did everything it could to protect students.

CALLER: Yes, well, as all this is happening, they had a lockdown at the high school there. The high school is like a half mile away from the Sandy Hook school. So we had a lockdown, and everyone started to use their phones and just found out about the shooting. And then we didn`t really believe it at first. We were like holy -- wow.

And then we think -- I think the teachers did a good job, because the stories I`m hearing about it is that--

GRACE: You know what, you`re right about that, Kevin. Matt Zarrell, describe what Kevin in Connecticut has mentioned.

MATT ZARRELL: Well, Nancy, there are a bunch of reports about -- not only are we learning more about the scene, we`re also learning more about the timeline. We are trying to get a clearer picture of what happened in the moments they believe that the shooter killed these children within minutes, 20 children dead. As we`ve talked about, the bodies were all taken out overnight, and we have gotten some dispatch sound taking us through the play by play of what happened as police responded to the scene.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is what we know at this point about the time line of the shooting as reported by law enforcement officials and witnesses and the layout of the school as best we can piece it all together.

9:30 in the morning, classes have been underway for about half an hour. More than 600 students and about 50 faculty members are inside the building. In addition to that, there is a meeting that`s just been convened by some of the school officials, including the principal, in a room somewhere right up here, about seven of them all gathered in one room.

About 9:40, ten minutes later as best we can make it out again, that`s when the gunman appears to have entered the building. How? We don`t know, they had a new security system right up here, that might have kept him out. Not sure what happened with that. Police spent a lot of time looking at a car parked right out here in the fire lane suggesting that if that were his car that, in fact, he may have indeed come right through the front door here into the school. People throughout the building at that point start saying that they`re hearing shots.

9:41, the calls start going in to 911 at that point. And the principal, the vice principal, and the school psychologist who were in that meeting, all go toward the gunfire out in the hallway according to a witness. Only the vice principal returns, and the vice principal is wounded. There is much shouting, there are many, many shots out there. Everyone says they hear it. Authorities say the shooting itself happens in a relatively short period of time, and they say the gunman doesn`t roam around, but generally stays in this area. In fact, they say all the shooting happens in just two rooms.

9:45, teachers throughout this building are trying to protect students, in some cases the students say they helped them hide, in others there seems to be some indication that teachers may have tried to get them out of the building. The bottom line is, though, and you can see these pictures from the "Newtown Bee," there was an effort to get the kids out to safety. And it was a difficult, difficult stunt to pull off because you have hundreds of kids here and they`re obviously traumatized and very, very upset.

9:50. By this time for sure, and again, we`re not sure of the time line, it`s murky, but the gunman somewhere in this process has died. Police officers say no officer fired a shot. So it`s believed that he shot himself, but this we do know. As officers arrive on the scene from state and local police, they secure the entire building and they spread out through it, trying to make sure that there are no other gunmen and trying to find all these pockets of children hiding within this building. And at that point, they start escorting them out of the building as well. A difficult, difficult time, and this timeline is what the investigators are going to have to build upon in the coming weeks to clarify, to make sure we know exactly when things happened and how.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Caller is indicating she thinks that someone is shooting in the building. The front glass has been broken.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She had an infectious smile. She was always smiling.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But it was when they told the parents, all these parents were waiting for their children to come out. They thought that they were, you know, still alive.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Shortly after yesterday`s horrific massacre, police and SWAT teams descended on the Lanza home, where it is believed that Adam Lanza lived with his mother.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You think the teacher saved his life?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She definitely did. He had bullets going by him and she grabbed him and another child.

VANCE: The weaponry that was recovered by investigators was recovered in close proximity of the deceased.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They were asking what`s going on. We said we don`t know. Our job is to stay quiet.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And so I`m hearing the gunfire in the hallway. I said to them, I said, I need you to know that I love you all very much.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRACE: Tonight, we are trying to put together pieces of the puzzle. As you all know by now, 27 dead in one of the worst school shootings ever and one of the youngest school shootings. These tiny victims, as young as five years old, sustaining multiple gunshot wounds. The medical examiners and police working into the night. The tiny bodies removed from the crime scene in the shroud of darkness.

Joining me right now is a special guest, Sue Short. Her little boy, just five years old, the age of my twins, survived the shooting. Sue, thank you for being with us.

SUE SHORT, PARENT OF 5-YEAR-OLD WHO SURVIVED SHOOTING: Hi, Nancy.

GRACE: Sue, I can`t even imagine what you went through the day of the shooting. Please describe for us what happened.

SHORT: Well, as so many other parents have already said, I had no idea the extent of this tragedy when I got to the firehouse. If I had, I don`t know that I could have gotten there. But I did. And my son, thankfully, was there. And I just -- it still is such a shock.

GRACE: How did you learn that there had been an incident at the school?

SHORT: I was actually in Danbury and got a phone call on my cell phone from my mother and my sister, and everybody told me that there had been a shooting and the school was locked down. I then quickly got on to the highway and came here. My husband had already gotten to the firehouse and picked my son up. So by the time I got down there, they were gone, which was scary in itself. I wasn`t sure where my son was at that point. And then finally a teacher found me and said your son is with your husband.

GRACE: Sue, did you see all the other parents arriving?

SHORT: Yes, everybody was getting there. When I got there, it was getting very chaotic, and the firehouse was packed with people and children, and staying as calm as possible. And again, I don`t even think the teachers at that point knew how extensive this whole thing was. So everybody was, you know, the teachers were doing a wonderful job of keeping everybody calm and safe and doing what they needed to do.

GRACE: You know what, Sue, more and more stories are emerging of teachers trying to block their students with their own bodies to save the students, to try and save the students. And the principal died, the female principal died trying to lunge at the shooter, trying to stop him. She died trying to save the students. So, those teachers are heroes. They were more brave than, you know, a thousand so-called heroes.

Your son survived and your son is the age of my children. My twins. And I`ve been trying to imagine -- what were you thinking when you were racing to that firehouse?

SHORT: I just kept telling myself he`s going to be OK. I never in my wildest imagination did I think that so many children were killed. At that point, we didn`t know anything. So I was just going and I`m getting my child and I`m bringing him home. That`s all I was thinking. I didn`t let my mind wander because I don`t think I could have gotten there again if I knew the extent of this.

GRACE: What did your son tell you about what he went through? What happened?

SHORT: When I first saw him, he came up and gave me a big hug. He said, mommy, mommy, there was a fire drill at the school, and we all went to the firehouse. The kindergarten teachers did a great job of keeping it down. They told the children that it was a hammer, the gunshots. So my child hasn`t mentioned anything other than the -- it was a hammer, and if it wasn`t a hammer, mommy, it was bad guys with guns is what he said to me last night in trying to find out what he knows and doesn`t know. Because I don`t want to push something on him that he doesn`t know about.

GRACE: Smart. Smart. Sue, so at this point, he doesn`t know that some of the other children are dead?

SHORT: I -- no. I haven`t told him anything like that. But, again, how do you know what a five-year-old has absorbed and what they haven`t? I don`t know what he saw. I haven`t asked him that yet. I don`t know, I don`t know what he saw, and we`ve kept the TVs off. We`ve kept, you know, the conversation to a minimum when he`s in a room. But you know, they`re kids, they absorb so much. So I`m just praying that, you know --

GRACE: I know mine will say something. I go, where did you learn that? Who told you that? Where did you hear that? And they will tell me, and what they absorb is incredible.

SHORT: Exactly.

GRACE: Dr. Bethany Marshall, I think Sue Short is doing exactly the right thing. I wouldn`t ask the child about it unless they brought it up, and then I would be just I guess receptive to what they say without putting anything in their head. I don`t think there is any need for them to know, Dr. Bethany, unless they have questions, and you have to tell them the truth as gently as you can, I guess. But I don`t think that I would go any further than that was a hammer that you heard and leave it at that. Dr. Bethany, am I taking the easy way out?

DR. BETHANY MARSHALL, PSYCHOANALYST: No. You and Sue are correct. Don`t ask your child a bunch of questions. Your child is shocked and overwhelmed and unable to absorb the horror of what happened, and it is most likely at this point still in some state of disassociation or denial.

So your primary task as a parent is to sit with your child, spend time with your child. When your child is ready to tell the story, listen carefully, answer the questions as they come up. Do not tell your child more than he or she has asked or needs to know, and watch for signs of post-traumatic stress.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRACE: We are getting news tonight, more details. The victims in the school massacre ranged in ages from 6 to 56, according to state police. 18 female, 8 male, 26 at the school plus the gunman. 20 were tiny children, 20. Six were adults, and we now believe that the shooter had a confrontation with adults at the school in the day preceding the shooting, tried to go out and buy a gun, was turned down but got guns that were registered to his mother, including high-powered assault rifles. The family taking target practice together, we are learning.

Overnight, the bodies of the tiny victims brought out of the school in the shroud of darkness, and now the day after, claims that the shooter was autistic.

Joining me right now out of Little Rock is Pat Hays, former judge, who is raising autistic sons, I believe in their teens now. Pat, thank you for being with us.

PAT HAYS, RAISED TWO SONS WITH AUTISM: You`re welcome.

GRACE: Pat, what I don`t want is for this to be pooh-poohed away, going, oh, he was autistic. That is a huge, huge disservice to the millions of people that are suffering from autism. This shooter has been described as, quote, a genius, as Goth, as quiet, composed, shy, camera shy. Did extremely well in school. That, to me, is not fitting in with the description the day after, the morning after, so to speak, where relatives are trying to say, well, he was somewhat autistic. I want to hear what you make of that, Pat.

HAYS: I`ve heard reports that he had Asperger`s syndrome. Which my oldest son, Nick, has. He`s 14.

GRACE: Which has just been removed from the umbrella of autism is my understanding, Pat.

HAYS: Actually, what they have done in the new DSMV V (ph) that will come out is they have something just called autism spectrum disorder, which will now include PBD, which is pervasive developmental disorder, and it will include Asperger`s and also Rett syndrome, as well as what we have just in the past called autism.

GRACE: So, Pat, how does a description of him as making good grades, being a, quote, genius, quiet but Goth, how does that fit in with others that are now saying, oh, well, he was autistic?

HAYS: I think some of those characteristics would be common for kids with Asperger`s to have. Some are geniuses and they have a talent in some specific area. Many, though, don`t do well in school at all. They have some problems with making friends, with understanding how to carry on conversations. Many times they are loners. And they are creatures of routine. They like for the same thing to happen the same way every time.

They have -- they a lot of times don`t like loud noises. They don`t understand a lot of speech. They take something literal, everything. So you can`t use a phrase like "kick the bucket." They will be looking to see where the bucket is. But there is nothing about having Asperger`s syndrome that I think would lead this boy to do what he did.

GRACE: With me is Pat Hays, former judge. She knows what she`s talking about. She is raising two sons with autism.

To Rita Cosby, investigative reporter, joining me there on the scene. Where are we getting this information? Because I don`t want this to be blamed on autism. I don`t even know that I believe that fact. But I want to find out the truth of this.

COSBY: And Nancy, also, I`m the godmother of two autistic children. So I can tell you, they are loving, wonderful, nonviolent kids. So I agree with your point, Nancy.

In terms of where this is coming from, we are told, and a law enforcement source told me that I cannot talk about what he suffered from, that there were some mental issues, and that we`re also hearing that there may have been some autism, we`re hearing Asperger`s. We`re not quite clear. There seems to be something there. We also know from law enforcement sources that they are talking to everyone surrounding this gentleman, this Adam Lanza, the suspected shooter. Well, they are talking to doctors, they said. So clearly, they are focusing in on that, but don`t seem to have a clear handle on it at this time. There is something there, we just don`t know specifically what.

GRACE: OK, well, for all I know, it could have been an antisocial disorder. For you to shoot your mother in the face, that was housing you and supporting you, those are more facts we`re learning today. Everything is upside down right now. We don`t know the answers to everything. But apparently, he lived with his mother, gunned down his mother in the face with her own weapons. Tried to buy more weapons, had access to another mini-arsenal. He came in armed to the teeth to this elementary school, K- 4, tiny children.

Out to the lines. Lisa in Illinois, hi, Lisa. What is your question, dear?

CALLER: (inaudible). I watch you all the time and I wish we had more people like you.

GRACE: Thank you.

CALLER: And I thank God for you every day.

GRACE: Thank you.

CALLER: I just want everyone to know that I have a son that is suffering from Asperger`s. He is 24, and there is no way on God`s green earth that he would hurt one person, let alone 28. And it just breaks my heart, because there could be so much stereotyping now. And it`s not fair. They should have just said he had blue eyes, because then we would be scared of blue-eyed people.

GRACE: Lisa in Illinois, that was my same reaction -- your call is giving me chills right now. That was my same reaction when I heard everybody saying, oh, well, he`s autistic. I don`t know that. For all I know, that`s some relative trying to explain away what happened and take away responsibility from this gunman. I don`t know the truth. But I`m going to get the truth. Come hell or high water, I`m going to get the truth. Whether we like the truth or not is not my concern. My concern is what is the truth.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAURA PHELPS, PARENT OF 2 CHILDREN AT SANDY HOOK: When we went down to the firehouse to get our children, we were unaware of the real tragedy at hand. I did not think children were involved. I thought this was an isolated, a couple of teachers, maybe even just one. So when we got our children and I saw my son`s teacher, they were like ghosts but they were incredibly composed. They had their sheets with them, checking off, making sure each child went with their parent. They did everything possible to keep our children safe. Everything. And I wish I had known when I looked at their faces just to say, thank you. Because I have my children.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And a lot of people don`t.

PHELPS: No.

NICK PHELPS, PARENT OF 2 CHILDREN AT SANDY HOOK: If I could have gone back, again like my wife says, we had no idea of the level of what had happened in there. We had the rumor going around that the principal who was a wonderful, beautiful woman, the rumor was that she had been -- that she has been killed, and it was -- all the parents hoped that this was an isolated incident, even though that was a horrible loss of life.

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 firehouse of finding their children, and we can`t even imagine, in our prayers -- we`re just -- 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 of 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.

L. PHELPS: This is a feeling that is unspeakable. It is like reaching into your inside and pulling them out. I mean, when things happen to your children and to other people`s children, I can`t look at my children`s faces now without seeing the faces of every one of their schoolmates and all their friends, and everything that they are doing right now or saying. They`re talking about Christmas, and I`m just thinking, their friends should all be here. And it is just, it is such, it is so heavy. So heavy on your heart.

N. PHELPS: 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRACE: Joining me right now is Wendy Goodell, also with us Roger DePew. Roger, you were a profiler who investigated the Virginia Tech shooting. What are the similarities, if any?

ROGER DEPEW, FORMER FBI PROFILER: There are many similarities. We are talking about Asperger`s and autism. In the Cho case, you had a condition called selective mutism, which was diagnosed. Now, both Asperger`s and selective mutism is a situation where the person is -- has difficulty in social situations. Excuse me. And so both of these persons apparently had this background, but the important point, I think, is to try to get inside the mind and to say, what was going on. And that`s where fantasy plays a very big part.

GRACE: Burke Strunsky, Mickey Sherman, still they are, police are trying to rule out any involvement with another party. Mickey, I find it very difficult to believe that anybody else is involved in this.

MICKEY SHERMAN, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: It would just be too much. And you know, I have got to tell you, I disagree with the doctor who just spoke. You cannot trade this off for Asperger`s or any other kind of dementia. It`s just too gross. What happened is, as Governor Malloy said, evil visited Connecticut yesterday, and it is as simple and as sad and horrific as that.

GRACE: Strunsky?

BURKE STRUNSKY, DEPUTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: Yes, I think that`s exactly right. I mean, I spent my career prosecuting crimes against children, and I can tell you without hesitation that this incident has shocked me to the bone. Absolutely shocked me, despite all the crimes that I have prosecuted of people that have really hurt children.

So this is going to change America in a significant way.

GRACE: Wendy Goodell is joining us. Her friend`s children attend Sandy Hook. She attended as a child. Wendy, I want to hear your reaction as well.

WENDY GOODELL, FRIENDS` KIDS ATTENDED SANDY HOOK: I think just shock, like everybody else. Just complete, absolute disbelief. I think that, I think people are here, and we see the traffic and we see flowers, but it is just not -- it is not real. It doesn`t happen here.

GRACE: You are echoing the reaction of so many. Everyone, Dr. Drew continues HLN`s special coverage of the school shooting tragedy. Our prayers there in Newtown. Good night, friend.

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