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Continuing Coverage of Connecticut School Shooting
Aired December 16, 2012 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: I'm Erin Burnett reporting live from Newtown, Connecticut, a community today in mourning after a deadly school shooting killed 20 children and six adults. Over the next two hours we're going to bring you the latest details on the investigation and the victims.
And there are also some other major stories that we're following on this Sunday afternoon. And Deb Feyerick is live in Atlanta. She's going to be bringing you those developments later on in the program.
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, Erin.
BURNETT: As we arrived here where our cameras are, it's hard not to be moved by what you see in this town. There's one place where you literally see 20 angels in wood. Everywhere, there are balloons and flowers and teddy bears and things in honor of victims that it is impossible to imagine, the age and innocence of these victims.
Today we're learning some new details about the horrendous crime and about these innocent victims' deaths. Here's what we know right now.
Police say crime scene investigators are now wrapping up work in the parking lot of the Sandy Hook Elementary School. Work, though, does continue inside the school, the crime scene.
Here's what we know about the guns right now. Three of them were found next to the body of the suspected gunman. His name, of course, is Adam Lanza, 20 years old. Now officials say one was the primary weapon used and it was a semiautomatic rifle.
We have also learned that the 20 children who were killed inside the school were shot multiple times. Every single one of them was either 6 or 7 years old.
President Obama is going to arrive here in Newtown this afternoon to try to comfort the victims' families. He's scheduled to arrive here in about an hour and a half. He is going to be meeting with the families and also with the first responders. And then after that he's going to be speaking at an interfaith vigil.
And I want you to know that we're going to be taking that vigil here on CNN live in its entirety. It begins at 7:00 Eastern time.
Now we do know the names of the victims today. But we are still learning about who they were, what their lives were like, so short, but no doubt given their age, providing so much joy for those around them.
Nick Valencia is in the CNN Newsroom in Atlanta.
And, Nick, I know that the families are just now starting to post pictures of their children and issue some statements. What do you know?
NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Erin, some of the families, as you can imagine so far, have been very private about their loss. But some really want people to know about their loved ones.
And the family of Jessica Rekos is one of those. Now understandably, the family didn't want to talk at length about their loss. But they did want young Jessica to be remembered.
They say in a statement to CNN, "Jessica loved horses; in fact, she spent most of her time devoted to them, watching horse movies, drawing horses, reading and writing about them. In fact, this Christmas she asked Santa for new cowgirl boots and a cowgirl hat.
"She loved playing, as most little kids do. In fact, especially she loved playing with her little brother, Travis, and her little brother, Shane.
"And as the first-born of the family," Erin, her family says that, "she was the rock. And it's difficult to imagine a life without her."
It's hard for them, especially devastating for that family. And in a statement, they said, Erin, "We are mourning her loss, sharing our beautiful memories we have of her and trying to help her little brother, Travis, understand why he can't play with his best friend anymore." Jessica Rekos was just 6 years old.
Erin?
BURNETT: All right. Thanks very much to you, Nick.
We want to let you know that we do have a live picture right now of Marine One; the president is just getting ready to leave the White House and come here to Newtown where, as we said, he will be in just about an hour and a half time, he'll be visiting individually with the families and first responders.
And then he will be speaking at a 90-minute vigil, which we will be carrying live in its entirety here on CNN.
And now to the investigation and the latest that we know. Police say that they are confident that every question involving the crime will be answered. In particular, the why. We are finding out more details about how the alleged gunman actually got into the school.
Alison Kosik joins us now with that information.
And, Alison, what is the latest that you've learned? I know it's been so difficult; information has come out in such bits and spurts. What do you know now? ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, what we're learning is that this sort of push for more information is really going on. As far as the ATF goes, they're done with tracing the weapons, as far as who owns the weapons.
Now what's happening is federal agents are chasing leads, they're looking at 30 gun ranges, 400 gun dealers in a four-county area near Newton. What they're trying to do is figure out what the gunman was doing in the days leading up to this massacre.
Now I am in the neighborhood where the gunman used to live with his mother, Nancy. We're not yet able to confirm whether or not they've closed, whether or not authorities have closed this area as a crime scene. There certainly hasn't been any activity here since early afternoon.
But what we are learning, actually from the governor of Connecticut, Dan Malloy, we're learning how Lanza got into the school, knowing that there were security measures in place at the school, that you had to be buzzed in as of 9:30, buzzed into the building.
In fact, there were security cameras that you would sort of look at on the security camera as to who is looking to come into the school.
But what the governor is saying that basically this gunman blasted his way in. He, you know, he basically shot an entrance into the building. Erin?
BURNETT: All right. Now Alison, as you were talking, we just saw the president getting on to Air Force One. So we now know that he's in progress as he waved as he got on there. So he is now going to be en route here to Newtown where you and I are.
I understand, Alison, that you spoke to a man whose children used to go to Sandy Hook Elementary and he's trying to take action to mobilize his neighbors. What did he tell you he's doing?
KOSIK: His kids actually went to Sandy Hook years ago. He feels like a lot of people feel in this town. How do you make sense of this? How do you come to terms with what happened? You know, he says some people grieve; he says what he wants to do is take action. So what he's in the process of doing is really mobilizing people.
He actually held a meeting today with people, trying figure out what to do as far as emailing their representatives and sending phone calls, trying to get some sort of action all the way up to Capitol Hill. The hope is to sort of try to find some sort of -- I guess some sort of semblance of a remedy to what's happened here on Friday.
BURNETT: All right, Alison Kosik, thank you very much.
Alison reporting for us; and as she gets more information she'll be back with us.
And we learned some new information on the timeline, a Connecticut newspaper releasing a chilling and extremely detailed timeline of what happened just before the 10 minutes of horror on Friday, information about the heroes we haven't heard until now, next.
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BURNETT: The "Hartford Courant" newspaper has released a chilling account of the shooting with some very hard-to-read details. The article has the headline, "A Methodical Massacre, Heart and Heroics." It's very specific;. it goes into great detail about what happened on Friday morning.
I want to bring in David Owens now, he's been reporting at the "Courant" for 18 years.
And David, I just wanted to go through this with you. When I was reading this, one of the things that stood out to me the most was after he blasted his way into the school, he could have gone left and he could have gone right and he made a choice.
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DAVID OWENS, "HARTFORD COURANT": He chose to go left towards the classrooms. And we wish we could understand why. We just don't know.
BURNETT: And there were, on the right, there were kids also, classrooms.
OWENS: Yes.
BURNETT: Auditorium -- and that was the choice.
OWENS: And that was the choice he made, towards those first graders.
BURNETT: Now tell me about how he got into the school. I know that we know that he had shot his way in; but you know some details about how.
OWENS: Well, there were conflicting reports. But our understanding now is that he fired his weapon and made a hole in the glass basically and climbed into the school. Was not allowed in; forced his way into the school.
BURNETT: He forced his way in.
Now tell me about the first classroom that he reached. That was Kaitlyn Roig's (ph) classroom. We now know about her heroism in saving as many kids as she could.
But what happened in the room?
OWENS: The kids were all hidden, and which is just such a tribute to these teachers. And for some reason he just kept going and then he went to the second classroom where Lauren was, Lauren Russeau and her kids, 14 kids. And that's where he opened fire.
BURNETT: And I know that she tried to save the children. She tried to hide them. And some of them fled out of fear and that's when he saw them.
OWENS: I believe that was in the next classroom. But yes, it was just -- these teachers all were, the evidence shows, just heroic in terms of trying to protect those kids.
BURNETT: So in the search of his mother's home, police have found a lot of information. We don't yet know much about it. But you do know how they found his mother, where they found his mother. What can you tell me?
OWENS: We know that his mother was still in bed -- she had been shot twice in the head -- that police secured the house. Before that, though, they searched it with a robot out of concern that there may have been booby traps or some other device to trap the police.
So they used a robot to search the building and the house -- and that's become, unfortunately, relatively common practice for police, just to ensure their own safety when going into a place after this kind of event.
And they found -- he had two bedrooms where he lived. He lived in one of them, had his computers and other items in another. And they found that a hard drive had been removed from one of the computers and smashed. And we believe they found other relevant evidence as well.
BURNETT: And what's your understanding at this point about their ability to access that information on that hard drive, even though it was -- he had attempted obviously to destroy it?
OWENS: They're working with computer forensic experts to try and read that and recover the data that's on that hard drive.
BURNETT: There was another story I wanted to give you a chance to talk about, when I read your article, that stood out. And that was in the classroom where one of the teachers had tried to put the children in a closet and have the children be as quiet as they could. And some of them were and some of them were and some of them, the -- those children that fled.
So --
OWENS: Some of those --
BURNETT: Tell me about what you understand about what happened in that room.
OWENS: Well, the teacher tried to protect the kids again and had them in a closet, told them to be quiet. The -- some of the kids fled. And Lanza came in and he killed the teacher. He killed those kids.
But the other kids stayed quiet and they stayed in that closet. And after the police had -- after this ended and the police were in there, searching through the building, through this horrible situation, they opened the closet and there were these kids who had survived, just their eyes staring wide at the officers.
BURNETT: And you wrote that they opened the closet and there were seven pairs of eyes staring.
OWENS: Yes, my colleagues (inaudible) Ed Mahoney (ph) reported the bulk of the story. They did a great job.
BURNETT: Well, thank you very much. We appreciate your taking the time to explain it to us and to everyone watching.
There's so much happening here in Newtown. But we want to go back to our headquarters in Atlanta for just a moment and to Deb Feyerick; she has a look at some of the other news that we're watching on this Sunday afternoon.
Deb?
FEYERICK: Yes, thanks, Erin.
Well, a deal could be closer to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff. A source tells CNN that House Speaker John Boehner is offering to include higher tax rates on people making more than $1 million. The White House is still holding to its $250,000 threshold. Unless a deal is reached by January 1st, practically everyone will be hit with a tax increase.
And it appears that President Obama has tapped Massachusetts Senator John Kerry as his next secretary of state. A source says the president may make the announcement later this week. The 69-year-old senator narrowly lost the presidency in 2004 to President George W. Bush. He's chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a decorated veteran of the Vietnam War.
And Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood declares a narrow victory in the first round of hotly contested constitutional referendums. This is only the first weekend of voting. The rest of the country will vote next weekend. Election monitors report some claims of voter intimidation and early poll closings.
That's what we've got from here. Erin, let's go back to you in Newtown.
BURNETT: Thank you very much, Deb.
And many Newtown residents are seeking comfort in faith. And joining me now is the Reverend Mark Moore; he leads a small congregation in Newtown's Town Center.
Normally your church has -- and you were saying -- about 20 worshippers on a Sunday service.
REV. MARK MOORE, ST. MARK'S EPISCOPAL: That's right. We're a tiny little parish. We're one of two parishes that are directly in the village of Sandy Hook.
BURNETT: And what was it like today?
MOORE: Well, we had a service yesterday at 12:00 to address this issue. It was packed with people. And even reporters from all over the world were there -- Australia, Russia, Italy, France, England, Germany. All over the world is following this story. All the major networks were there. You know, CNN was there, of course.
And so this is an international event. And so the churches have a particular role when something like this happens and that is to help people make some kind of sense of it. When it first happened, everyone, including me, was in a state of complete shock.
I heard, and I'm the same as anyone else, you know, the sense of -- a sickening sense of how could this possibly happen. And you try to wrap your mind around it. And comprehend that you can't; it's just impossible. And even the ways that we typically try to understand events like this through psychology and they say the man was disturbed, things like that. He certainly was.
But at war, you can understand the cultural and political tensions and things like for a natural disaster. This goes way beyond that. Even a very sick mentally ill individual could never just because of that commit a crime so horrendous.
So you're thrown back on religious concepts; that's the only way to understand it. And our faith teaches us there are forces of good and forces of evil at work in the world. And this was a time when the forces of evil were manifest in a very dramatic way.
BURNETT: And how are you helping your parishioners? I mean, how do you comfort them? It's one of those situations where you want to tell people it's going to be all right. But of course, it isn't going to be all right.
MOORE: Of course it isn't going to be all right. And I think that it's a disservice to say -- just to say everything is going to be all right. I think the one thing we do is we draw people together so there's a sense of community and caring. And that's the first stage in any kind of healing because there's a tremendous amount of fear and anxiety that can accompany this.
So the fact that we're all together in a loving community is very comforting. But beyond that, people ask, you know, trying to make sense of it. How can this possibly happen?. And so we tried to, at the time, remind them of the teachings of the faith, that there is good and evil in the world.
But God is completely good. God opposes evil and in the end, God is stronger than the forces of evil. And the forces of evil will be purged from the world. And that is our hope. So we look to God for His -- for God's strength, healing, guidance, knowing that God is all- good and all-loving.
And that's a very powerful thing. If we don't have that, then it's just senseless mayhem. And there can be no healing from that. Just the opposite, is more alienation and fear and senselessness. And that's something that it's very hard to live with that kind of belief.
BURNETT: Well, thank you very much, Reverend Moore. There can be a great hole at moments like this when we don't have faith. MOORE: Thank you.
BURNETT: Well, as the Reverend Moore was saying, trying to understand how this could happen is a question for people around the world right now.
And we want to look at how a person could carry out such an extreme and unthinkable act of violence. It's hard for anyone to fathom.
And as memorials are being held around the nation, our next guest is going to help us make sense out of what could lead a person, a human being, to carry out such an act of gross violence against children.
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BURNETT: Authorities are trying to get a more complete picture of the Connecticut gunman. What could possibly trigger a human being to do what this man did? The suspected shooter was young, he was white, he was male.
To help us with some answers, we want to bring in Jim Clemente. He's a former FBI special agent, an adviser and writer for the program, "Criminal Minds."
Jim, I appreciate your taking the time.
We were just talking to the reporter from "Hartford Courant," whose article was titled methodical when he was describing this crime. Methodical is a very hard and awful word to use when talking about something like this, that it was preplanned and premeditated.
What could cause a person to do this?
JIM CLEMENTE, FORMER FBI SPECIAL AGENT: Well, I think in this case, it could be anything from psychosis, mental illness to sort of a slow burn and a justice collector. Somebody who has has built up these angers and rage over years.
But in this case, the mix of that mental illness or psychosis, plus the suicidal/homicidal ideation plus access to semiautomatic weapons was a recipe for disaster.
BURNETT: Adam Lanza was no doubt troubled. You know, I was at a pizza parlor with the people there who knew Adam and Ryan and their mother, Nancy, and talked about him and some of the troubles that he had had that she had talked about. I know that he was obviously living with his mother; his father had remarried. His brother was in New Jersey. They didn't have a lot of contact with him.
Do you think that -- is it fair to say he was perhaps incredibly isolated? Do we have enough information to know that? Just in terms of interactions with other people at all? CLEMENTE: It seems like from the reports that he was fairly isolated. Even in public he was very socially inept and didn't interact much with other people. And that isolation can help make insular decisions and insular understandings of what they're going through. See, this kind of thing is a complicated mix of bio, psycho and social.
Basically a perfect analogy in this case is that the genetics loads the gun. The psychology and personality aims the gun and the events in their life pull the trigger. And because of all of those things coming together, it's sort of a perfect storm in this case.
BURNETT: Now, I was talking to some friends of the family today, who were saying that this young man had been so intelligent that he had graduated high school two years early. This is what they had told me. And there's been some speculation that he had Asperger's syndrome, which is, of course, the very high functioning, often comes with incredibly high intelligence, form of autism.
Now several studies on criminal behavior have shown that people who are autistic, who sometimes lack empathy, are no more likely to be criminals than anyone else.
So are we -- as people starting to talk about the impacts of this disorder, are we off-base?
CLEMENTE: Well, I think first of all, in my experience, I've been involved in criminal justice for the last 28 years. In my experience, autism and Asperger's syndrome have only entered into the fray a few times in that entire period of time. I don't think it is a major contributing factor, other than the fact that it may have been something that helped to isolate him.
He may have had psychological -- undiagnosed psychological problems, mental illnesses. In fact, schizophrenia most of the time shows up in late adolescence, early 20s. So there are things that obviously could have happened. But we just don't know yet. There needs to be a lot more investigation into his mental status.
BURNETT: So many questions unanswered today, Jim, thank you.
The Newtown tragedy has a lot of people asking about how safe their children are and what can be done to make children safer at school. Experts say that they could get some help from their cell phones. This is very serious and we're going to look at the latest apps that are designed to help keep very young children safe.
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BURNETT: All right. We are here in Newtown, Connecticut, a town that is grieving, a country that is grieving for the children and the teachers who were killed here on Friday morning. The streets here, there are memorials everywhere.
You get a sense of how small and tight this community is just walking down the street and since it's sort of like a bucolic New England town that you would imagine, there's no more perfect a place than this, the Christmas town and Christmas tree in the center of town, the small little shops lining the street, wreaths up in all the houses. You can tell sort of what would have been the perfect Christmas, until this horrific thing happened.
We do have some new details about shooting and the investigation; I want to share those with you right now, the latest that we have. There's still so many questions unanswered.
But we do know right now that Connecticut Governor Dan Malloy says that the suspect, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, shot his way into the school. There were three guns that were found next to Lanza's body. Officials say only one of those guns, though, was the primary weapon and that was a semiautomatic rifle.
We've also learned that the 20 children who were killed inside the school were shot multiple times. Every single one of those children was 6 or 7 years old.
The president is coming here tonight. He's on his way to Newtown right now. He left just about 15-20 minutes ago.
The president will meet with families of the 26 victims who were killed in the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the second deadliest shooting in American history. The president will also speak at an interfaith vigil tonight. And that vigil will begin at 7 o'clock Eastern. We are going to bring it to you live in its entirety here on CNN.
The school shooting has renewed the debate about gun control across this country, a contentious debate at any time, but right now, more emotional than ever before.
Democrats in particular are pushing for tighter gun laws. Senator Dianne Feinstein said she is going to propose an assault weapons ban when the next Congress returns. Here she is.
SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN D, CALIF.: The purpose of this bill is to get just what Mayor Bloomberg said, weapons of war off the streets of our cities.
BURNETT: Of course the question is, would banning guns stop people from killing people? That's a central question today. Brianna Keilar shows us how the intensified debate on gun control is putting new pressure on the president, Barack Obama.
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BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Just hours after the Connecticut shooting, a promise from President Obama to tackle gun violence.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're going to have to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this regardless of the politics. KEILAR (voice-over): But what exactly does he mean by meaningful action? Critics of the president's record on the issue are pressing for specific proposals.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said, "Calling for meaningful action is not enough. 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."
Gun violence has not been a priority for the Obama administration. As he ran for president in 2008, Obama supported reinstating a ban on assault weapons.
OBAMA: Don't tell me we can't uphold the 2nd Amendment while keeping AK-47s out of the hands of criminals.
KEILAR (voice-over): Once elected, he did not make good on his campaign pledge. After his first year in office, the Brady campaign to prevent gun violence gave the president across-the-board F's on its report card.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Senate will come to order.
KEILAR (voice-over): A major obstacle for the president, Congress, where even in the Democratic-controlled Senate, there has been little appetite to touch the controversial issue. Multiple gun control bills have been introduced. Not a single one has made it to the floor for a vote.
Those involved in the debate over guns say the president has a number of options: reinstating some form of the assault weapons ban that expired in 1994, banning high-count magazines or improving the reporting of people with mental health issues to make sure they're disqualified from purchasing firearms.
Polls show Americans have become accustomed to daily reports of gun deaths.
Friday morning, a shooter killed a Memphis police officer who was a mother of four.
Friday night, a man shot and killed a woman working at a Las Vegas hotel, before killing himself.
Early Saturday morning, in Birmingham, Alabama, police killed a gunman inside a hospital where three people were hurt.
But New York Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy, whose husband died and son was injured when a shooter opened fire on a Long Island train in 1993, says the Connecticut shooting may be what forces President Obama and Congress to finally address the problem.
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REP. CAROLYN MCCARTHY, D-N.Y.: Let's face it. We need to have the president as the bully pulpit on trying to get something done. This time which I saw was different, that politicians that usually don't talk about it were talking about it. So there is a difference this time around. There is a difference -- maybe the pendulum is turning and the country is ready to get serious about this issue.
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KEILAR: White House spokesman Jay Carney said Friday it's the time to express sympathy for victims' families, not the time to engage in a policy debate.
But I spoke with Congresswoman McCarthy and she said she called up the White House and said, "What are you talking about? This is something that we should have been discussing for years." -- Brianna Keilar, CNN, the White House.
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BURNETT: There's a lot happening here in Newtown this afternoon. But we want to go back to CNN world headquarters in Atlanta to update you on the other key stories we're watching this Sunday afternoon. Deb Feyerick has a look at all those headlines. Deb?
FEYERICK: Thanks so much, Erin.
Well, in California, a very frightening incident for shoppers at a mall parking lot in Newport Beach.
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FEYERICK (voice-over): That is the sound of gunfire. A man in the parking lot firing 50 shots in the area yesterday. Stores were filled with shoppers. And those stores quickly locked their doors. No one was hit, but one person suffered minor injuries trying to get out of the area. The suspect is in custody. Police have not given a reason for the shooting.
And tomorrow, the State Department hands over a detailed report to Congress on the attack on the consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ordered the review. It precedes a classified briefing for Congress on Wednesday. Secretary Clinton will not testify; she suffered a concussion after a fall yesterday.
And in London, the Duchess of Cambridge attends her first public engagement since her pregnancy was announced this month. A spokesman says Catherine is appearing at BBC's Sports Personality of the Year Awards tonight. She was last seen December 6th, leaving the hospital after several days of treatment for acute morning sickness.
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FEYERICK: Well, phones and mobile devices may not be able to prevent what happened in Newtown. But they can be used to help keep kids safe and let parents know when things go wrong.
Our technology reporter, Lori Siegel, joining us now. You know, and, Lori, with the cell phone, kids can at least call 9-1-1 or their parents, let them know that they're OK if they find themselves in situations like what happened in Newtown.
LORI SIEGEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Sure. You know, in these situations, they're horrific and technology can't stop this kind of thing from happening. That being said, it can help us connect a lot better in times of tragedy and emergency situations. Let me tell you about an app called Crimepush.
Essentially a group of entrepreneurs, they have contacted local authorities. They have contact school districts, and they're creating an app that's going to help you better connect if something like this happens.
I'm going to pull up some bullet points. I want to -- I want to take you through exactly how it works. You're looking at it right there. So essentially it's an app that aggregates emergency school contacts. You can ping students with relevant updates. So, you know, students would have gotten a push notification saying there's a shooter here.
And the next point is it will send you into an active safety shelter. So it will send you a push notification saying, hey, the gym is safe, try to get there, show you a map to get there. Also a big one, Deb, they can actually text law enforcement your GPS coordinates.
Times like these you might not be able to pick up the phone, call law enforcement, but this actually enables you to text local law enforcement. Shake your phone and call 9-1-1. They're really interesting features they're building out here. Also it can be used for collecting evidence, take a picture, send it to local law enforcement. Deb?
FEYERICK: And I think that's so important because parents want to know where their children are in an emergency like this, and they want to make sure that those kids are going in the right directions, as you say. It may be a little bit more challenging for the elementary school kids that we saw obviously.
But for high school kids who always have cell phones, that could be helpful.
Now what about better ways to connect with your kids? Because the one thing you want is you want to be able to say, OK, where are you? How do we get to help or even give them information?
SIEGEL: Sure. You tell your kids, if there's an emergency, call me. But what happens if you don't, you're not by the phone? There's an app called NearParent. Now NearParent essentially allows you to connect better with your kids. You're looking at some features here, look at the check-in, small alert, big alert. These are all for your children to connect with you.
Let me take you through some of the major features on this app. Essentially NearParent allows you to create a GPS-enabled safe zone alert for your child. That means you'll get a push notification if your child goes away from the school or something like that.
Some people call it overbearing, you look at what's happened in the last couple of days and you think twice, right, Deb? It allows -- it allows a child to send these help alerts to multiple community members. You see -- we saw earlier, you can press one button and it'll go out, a push notification will go out to multiple adults.
Also enables a child to press a button and check in with their parents. So this can be used beyond a tragic event in our emergency. But just in any normal parenting, Deb.
FEYERICK: Yes. Absolutely. Because you know, with kids right now, especially when they're walking around, when they're walking around either in their town or in their city, you want to be able to track them. Lori Siegel, thank you so much. This is really helpful and obviously a lot of parents hoping to at least if not keep their kids as safe as possible, know exactly where they are so they can find them when they need.
All right. Well, quite frankly, there's no way to explain how you deal with the pain of losing a child in a massacre. But one father is bravely telling the story of his 6-year-old daughter and hoping to help begin the healing process. You will hear his powerful words, next.
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BURNETT: The lives of so many families in Newtown have been ripped apart and will never, ever be the same again. No one can ever think or imagine of sending a child off to school, whether they're excited or crying to leave you, and not seeing that child ever again.
As Kyung Lah, one father is speaking out about how he and his family are trying to find peace now.
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ROBBIE PARKER, FATHER OF EMILIE PARKER: I don't know how to get through something like this. My wife and I don't understand how to process all of this.
KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): How can you, asks Robbie Parker, when you lose your 6-year-old daughter? Emilie, his bright light, artist with crayons, elder sister to a 3- and 4-year old.
PARKER: She was the type of person that could just light up a room. She always had something kind to say about anybody. And her love and the strength that she gave us and the example that she showed us is remarkable. She is an incredible person. And I'm so blessed to be her dad.
JILL GARRETT, AUNT OF EMILIE PARKER: We're just devastated that someone so beautiful and perfect is no longer going to be in our lives. And for no reason.
LAH (voice-over): But then, just a day after losing this little girl to violence, her 30-year-old father said very simply, "I am not angry."
PARKER: As we move on from what happened here, what happened to so many people, let it not turn into something that defines us but something that inspires us to be better, to be more compassionate and more humble people.
The best thing that I can think of to do to move on is to help other people. When you help other people, you feel better about yourself. And the more people help other people, then the more people are blessed.
LAH (voice-over): The family moved to Newtown, from Salt Lake just eight months ago, because Emilie's father got a job at the local hospital where he cares for newborns.
Brett Keller is the family's bishop.
BRETT KELLER, PARKERS' BISHOP: I really don't know how they are coping and dealing as well as they are. They are just truly strong, faithful and believing people. And I think their focus on family and the importance of family in their life is really what is sustaining them and helping them right now.
PARKER: You can never stop being the best parent that you can be. You can always be better, you can always be more patient, you can always be more loving and understanding and willing to accept your children for who they are. I really hope that, as I continue to be a dad to my two children that I can just, if anybody looks back on my life, the number one thing that they can say about me is that I was a great dad.
LAH (voice-over): Kyung Lah, CNN, Newtown, Connecticut.
BURNETT: I want to bring in clinical psychologist Dr. Jeff Gardere.
And, Jeff, you know, we're just listening to Robbie Parker there, saying things that I know for many people watching, are -- it's hard to imagine the bravery. When he says I'm not angry, I don't want this to be something that defines me, and I want it to inspire me to be better.
A lot of people are feeling angry, very, very angry. How can they begin to get their arms around what has happened to their children?
DR. JEFF GARDERE, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST: I think what they need to look at, Erin, is what Robbie Parker is doing right now. He is being brave, he's being a role model. But he's using what we see in psychology as the healthiest way to cope with the tragedy.
First of all, he's communicating about it.
Secondly, he is openly grieving and not in denial as some people might still be.
Third, he's looking at what is most positive about his daughter. The fact that he was blessed, that she had some time on this Earth. And he is celebrating that and that is important.
We're also looking at the fact that he's using spirituality. You don't necessarily have to believe in a God, but there is spirituality, there is a Higher Power that we give that pain over to, because we simply can't handle it as individuals and psychology may not have the answer.
BURNETT: Dr. Gardere, what does this town do, though? It's such a small and intimate town. And this elementary school was such an -- it was a part of the community. It's going to be there, it's this constant sore and horrible reminder for people. So do you get rid of the school? Do you never have people go back? Do you demolish it? What do you do?
GARDERE: Well, I think the most important thing that we can do, again, is what Robbie Parker has done, and it's this idea of taking this tragedy and coming out of it, not just as a survivor, not just as a victim, but really as a victor. What can we learn from this? And how do we move on? How do we celebrate life from this kind of awful tragedy?
So with this school -- and I talked about this earlier -- no, we don't tear it down; they may look at perhaps doing something, changing those classrooms, making them more fortified or changing them from classrooms to another kind of a purpose for a room, because of those horrible memories.
But we have to bring the children back to the school because we don't want them to develop a phobia around schools, or around their particular school.
(CROSSTALK)
BURNETT: I'm sorry to interrupt you, thank you very much. We now have a press conference going on with the very latest that the police know. I want to just go in here live and listen.
LT. J. PAUL VANCE, CONN. STATE POLICE: The last two deceased, the female that was found at the secondary scene location at 36 Yoganada (ph) Street in Newtown has been positively identified as Nancy Lanza. Her birthdate is September 6th, 1960. Her cause of death is multiple gunshot wounds and the death has been ruled a homicide.
The male subject identified as the shooter at Sandy Hook Elementary School has been positively identified as Adam Lanza. He resided at that residence. His cause of death was gunshot wound and his death has been ruled a suicide.
There have been questions about the weaponry and I would like to take a minute to discuss with you briefly, very superficially, some of the information that can be released at this time. The weapon that was utilized most of the time during this horrific crime was identified as a Bushmaster AR-15 assault-type weapon. It had high-capacity magazines and in addition to that the subject had in his possession a Glock 10 mm, a Sig Sauer 9 mm. Both weapons -- all weapons had multiple magazines and additional ammunition.
The fourth weapon recovered was a shotgun that was recovered from the suspect's vehicle that was parked outside of the school.
That weaponry is going, as I said, is going to be completely examined in the forensic laboratory. It's going to be historically searched so we can attempt to determine every path that those weapons took since they were manufactured, every time that they were used, as much information as possible that we can obtain relative to each and every weapon.
The last thing -- and I just would like to restate what we stated this morning about anyone that harasses, threatens or intimidates or interferes with the investigation, utilizing any social media of any type relative to this horrific crime, will be fully investigated and fully prosecuted to the extent of the law.
We are talking about harassment includes in-person contact but also contact on the Internet, social media, telephone or any other means of communication.
We again are asking and imploring members of the media to please respect the family's privacies. We are continuing to staff a trooper as a conduit or a line of communication to assist the families, all 26 families in this incident and will do so per the colonel of state police indefinitely.
I will take a couple of questions, again, understanding that there are certain things that we still cannot answer and cannot discuss.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: (Inaudible).
VANCE: (Inaudible), sir. Yours?
QUESTION: Can you tell us (inaudible) church (inaudible)?
VANCE: There was, in fact, a threat at the St. Rose of Lima Church here in Newtown. The church -- everything is taken extremely seriously. The church was evacuated as a precaution. It was thoroughly searched, as was the rectory. And we have initiated a criminal investigation, working with Newtown police in this particular incident.
I have no further details. I do not know the content of the threat. But suffice it to say we treat these kind of instances as serious crimes; they are investigated as such. And if the perpetrator of that is identified that individual will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
QUESTION: Was it phoned in, though? Could you tell us that?
QUESTION: (Inaudible) phone call? Who did the phone call come to?
VANCE: Again, that is as much information I have on it.
QUESTION: Was it a phone call, though? Can you just tell us that?
VANCE: Yes.
QUESTION: Lieutenant, you talk about the Bushmaster was used most of the time. Can you give any details as to, first of all, what weapon Nancy Lanza was shot with and, second of all, did he use the handguns at all at the school?
VANCE: I do not know the weapon that Nancy Lanza was shot with. I simply don't know that. The Bushmaster was used, as was explained yesterday, in the school, in its entirety, and the handgun was used to take his own life.
QUESTION: And as a follow-up, can you tell me about the bullets fired from the Bushmaster, was there any ricochet action out of them?
VANCE: That's -- the trajectory of the shots and all of the ammunition used in this horrific crime will be examined and thoroughly reported in the report. I don't have that information to be able to (inaudible).
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: (Inaudible).
VANCE: That's correct.
QUESTION: (Inaudible) high-capacity --
VANCE: High-capacity, multiple high-capacity magazines.
QUESTION: How many (inaudible). How many rounds did he have?
VANCE: Approximately 30 rounds per magazine.
QUESTION: How many magazines?
VANCE: Several. Well, just numerous.
QUESTION: (Inaudible)?
VANCE: Hundreds of bullets, yes. Yes.
QUESTION: Those 30 rounds per magazine, were they just for the rifle? Or were those also for the --
VANCE: High-capacity magazine for the rifle, all right, and multiple magazines for the rifle and multiple magazine for both handguns.
QUESTION: Lieutenant, is there an indication that (inaudible)? VANCE: I don't -- I don't want to state that. I'm sure that they did everything they could. But I don't want to get into that specific detail if I can at this time.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: (Inaudible) the motive?
VANCE: Again, motive, as I discussed earlier, that will come as we finish the investigation. We simply can't piecemeal it. We don't have a specific reason that we can stand here and say this occurred. We will and we are searching diligently and non-stop to attempt to answer that question.
QUESTION: Did the shooter take his own life as police were coming --
VANCE: The timeline is being established by investigators, sir. That's the best I can do with that.
QUESTION: May we ask a point of clarification?
VANCE: You can, sir.
QUESTION: (Inaudible) this morning, they talked about the plans for the schools. Will the Newtown schools remain closed (inaudible)?
VANCE: Yes. Go ahead. Go ahead, (inaudible) --
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, that's correct. We're still -- we are still working with the superintendent of schools to do what's best. Obviously, it's an emotional time. The plan right now is still up in the air. They're finalizing the plans and we'll get that information out to you as soon as possible.
QUESTION: Is it safe to say that the Newtown schools will remain closed for this week?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As I said, it is still to be determined. Yes.
QUESTION: Do we know how many shots were fired yet?
VANCE: That's impossible to say. It -- there -- we do know how many rounds we recovered. We do know how many shell casings we recovered. I don't have that information to publicly give out just yet. I
QUESTION: (Inaudible).
VANCE: I can't -- -I would be speculating and guessing.
QUESTION: And how many magazines were empty?
VANCE: Numerous -- again, that's all investigatory information that I'm not privy to. I simply don't have that to give you.
(CROSSTALK)
VANCE: Many. Many. Hundreds.
QUESTION: But he had plenty of (inaudible) --
VANCE: Hundreds.
Yes, sir?
QUESTION: Hundreds on him that he had not used yet?
VANCE: Correct. Correct.
(CROSSTALK)
VANCE: Sir?
QUESTION: (Inaudible) killed his mother?
VANCE: I don't know that. I don't know that.
QUESTION: Lieutenant, has anything (inaudible) the president (inaudible) as a result of the (inaudible)?
VANCE: Well, the President of the United States is attending a memorial service tonight and he is coming to this town of Newtown.
QUESTION: What is the security and access (inaudible) like for that (inaudible)?
VANCE: Yes, the -- again, we don't discuss the security for the President of the United States. Suffice it to say that significant security will be in place, as is always the case when the president makes a visit anywhere.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: Has a timeframe for Ms. Lanza's death been established?
VANCE: No, sir. No, sir.
QUESTION: No time at all?
VANCE: No time -- no timeframe has been determined.
QUESTION: Who's invited to the memorial? (Inaudible)?
VANCE: Yes, sir.
QUESTION: Are you making progress, though, you feel in determining the motive?
VANCE: Yes. Certainly, we are pleased with the work that's been done so far. Hopefully that helps answer that question. We are pleased with the progress that we are making. This is a very long, tedious process, which I've stated. It's going to take many, many man hours, OK, to attempt to draw this picture together, to put this puzzle together.
The minute we have it, our objective here is to make sure that you, the members of the public, receive that information as quickly and as officially as possible. But to state right now that we have a motive, that we have a motive we are prepared to discuss publicly, it just cannot happen. We just do not have that information for public (inaudible).
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: (Inaudible) go into any detail about the teacher who saved the children by putting them -- the children into a closet?
VANCE: No, I would -- I would, again, I don't want to discuss the crime scene at all.
You, ma'am?
QUESTION: (Inaudible) computers, notebooks, anything?
VANCE: We did seize a great deal of evidence; our detectives have executed numerous warrants in this case. We do not detail the content of what we seize in any criminal investigation. I can tell that you we were successful in seizing a great deal of evidence in this investigation.
All that evidence, every stitch of it needs to be analyzed, and it will be, whether it's at our forensic laboratory or by specialists within our department or other departments, as time goes on.
We anticipate this is going to be the last discussion today. With the president coming in, we have got a great deal on our plate. If anything -- if anything additional should surface between now and tomorrow morning, OK, we will post it on our website, on the state police website. But we do not anticipate anything of a public nature to arise.
But should it arise I would suggest check our website on a regular basis. We will come back tomorrow morning; we will be here by -- we'll shoot for 9 o'clock. We want to keep you updated as much as we possibly can.
By tomorrow morning, we will have an idea as to hopefully some of the school questions here in the community. And we will be in contact with the superintendent and hopefully we'll have some additional investigatory information we can provide for you. All right. Thank you, good afternoon.
QUESTION: (Inaudible) as a phone call? Could you trace that phone call?
VANCE: We are working on that. We are working on that.
BURNETT: All right. You've been listening to Lt. Paul Vance of the Connecticut State Police. I'm Erin Burnett along with Wolf Blitzer.
