Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Saturday Morning News
Connecticut School Shootings; Names of Victims Being Released; Profile of Sandy Hook Elementary Principal Dawn Hochsprung; Inside the Police Investigation
Aired December 15, 2012 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: It is one of the deadliest shooting rampages in U.S. history. All morning we'll be updating about the victims and the investigation here in Newtown, Connecticut. We now know the name of the shooter. We'll dig into what was behind this monstrous, monstrous act and a second crime scene tied to the first. What investigators found when they went to the suspect's house.
It is Saturday, December 15th. I want to say good morning to everyone. It's not a good morning; it's a difficult morning, but we are spending it together here. I'm John Berman. You're watching our special coverage of the Connecticut school shooting live from Newtown, Connecticut.
And I want to bring in my colleague, Ali Velshi. Hey, Ali.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: John, it's a sad morning and it's going to get sadder in just a few moments. Just a few feet from where we are standing, a press conference is about to begin where they are going to release the names, we think, of many of the people killed.
David Arioso of CNN was one of the first of our team to be on the scene yesterday. David went to that firehouse that you keep hearing references to where parents were thinking they were going to meet their kids.
David, what happened yesterday?
DAVID ARIOSTO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, between the early morning hours, parents would file towards this firehouse and would basically try to get a sense of whether or not their kids, their loved ones were alive. Toward the early part of the morning, you would see parents walking out teary eyed, shaken, but with their children.
As the day progressed, you would see parents walking in pairs, sometimes walking with state troopers or fireman without a child and many of these parents were just besides themselves with grief. It is just one of those things that you can't put into words so much.
That fire station that becomes sort of a way station for many of the victims, many of the victims' families and it continues to be populated by emergency vehicles in the area. But this is just one of those stories that you look for words to sort of describe the sentiment that the people are feeling here and you're just put at a loss. VELSHI: We are still standing by. The officials have not arrived. We know they are here. They just haven't gone to the podium yet. John, you were at a location where there was one of a few vigils last night.
We are at the staging area where officials are giving the press conferences. The school is over there. It's behind us. This is a small town that can't accommodate everybody who is here to cover it, but David was there for -- he had the point of which you were seeing these parents. There are many people, those parents took their kids. You know if you got your kid, but you don't know who didn't get their kid. That's what we are about to find out. This is going to open up a whole new set of wounds.
ARIOSTO: There's also four adults that don't know the names of who are involved in this. This is all really just starting to trickle in in terms of the information that we know. We spoke to families yesterday, children who when this transpired were crouching in classrooms.
I spoke to a third grade eight-year-old kid who was just basically told in the back by police and teachers just to stay down, to keep away. Her parents ended up rushing to get her at the fire station. They received this automated message not knowing if their children were alive or dead. Not even really knowing which school the shooting had taken place in.
So you really had this whole community flocking to schools in and around the region not knowing what had transpired. I don't think many of us thought that it could have been this bad. Again, just watching some of these parents walk up that hill yesterday, those that were willing to speak with us we could only do so in gasps and breaths. Most didn't want to for understandable reasons.
VELSHI: John, many of these parents arrived at the scene not knowing, not knowing that their kids may not show up. The initial reports as you recall yesterday morning John was that they called for two ambulances. This did not look like what it was going to end up being -- John.
BERMAN: That's so true, Ali. I simply can't imagine going through something like that, but we should say right now this community is going through it together. I'm standing outside St. Rose of Lima Catholic church where last night there was a vigil. About 1,000 people inside and outside here to mourn together, to grieve together.
We walked inside the church a little while ago. Right now, there are two basically bulletin boards where people have already started posting messages of solidarity and grief and remembrance, the thoughts and prayers for everyone affected.
Of course, there are the victims, 20 children, ages five to 10 and as you said, we are awaiting a news conference right now where we expect we will learn the names of these victims as well as six adults who were killed at that school. We want to learn so much more about what was going on, so many people affected by this.
I spoke to the parent of a survivor a short while ago who is talking to his daughter, an eight-year-old girl, a third grader who survived the shooting. She was in a closet, locked in a closet in her classroom as it was going on. Then she was one of the first people brought to the firehouse afterwards. She has a 10-year-old brother who goes to another school. This eight-year-old third grader, the 10-year-old brother telling their father they don't want to go back to school on Monday. That's so understandable right now.
So many people Ali trying to work through this, but as I said, this town of Newtown, Connecticut, about 60 miles outside of New York City right now working through it together -- Ali.
VELSHI: One of the things that's going to happen, we are going to hear these names. There have been a lot of effort to try and find out who these victims were and the police are saying very clearly and they're going to tell us again, this was a real difficult task to identify.
They had tentative identifications on everybody by last night. They wanted positive identifications and they were not going to let their kids, they were not going to let these parents into the school to see their kids in that situation. So we are waiting for that momentarily.
The parents know who their kids are, obviously; the children didn't come home last night. The bodies are still in the building and that's an active crime scene, but there's also another active crime scene in this city, John.
BERMAN: The one name police already released is Adam Lanza. He is the suspect. He is the man they say that carried out the attack on the elementary school. When they arrived at his home, they made a startling discovery.
Mary Snow is at Lanza's home. Mary, what did police find there?
MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, police found the body of Lanza's mother, Nancy Lanza. It is believed that he lived with his mother in a home behind me as you can probably see. Police have blocked off this area. This was really covered by SWAT teams yesterday for several hours during the day to the point where residents had been evacuated for several hours. And between residents and friends, former classmates, they are piecing together more information about Adam Lanza.
And one of the pieces of the information and the profile of him, Susan Candiotti was reporting a law enforcement official saying that a family member told investigators that he had a form of autism. A former classmate described him as a student who was very bright, but also very remote. Take a listen to what one of his former classmates had to say last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALEX ISRAEL, FMR. CLASSMATE OF ADAM LANZA: He was really quiet. He kept to himself. I mean, he was a little fidgety, a little uneasy sometimes if you were just to look at him. I think he was just socially not really into going out there and making as many friends as everyone was really doing in elementary school and middle school. He was just, he preferred to stay to himself.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SNOW: Of course, that was a former classmate from many years ago. One of the neighbors I spoke to yesterday would only describe him as being someone that she thought was troubled. And other residents had described him as being a different and one description as a little off.
BERMAN: We know he lived with his mother apparently here in Newtown. What about the weapons that were used in this shooting, Mary? What do we know about them? What do we know about where he may have picked them up or gotten them?
SNOW: We have learned, CNN has learned that the weapons were legally purchased and they were legally purchased by his mother. What we found out was that two handguns were found at the scene and a semiautomatic rifle had been found in a car outside the school. So those three weapons we have been told, we have been reporting that they were legally purchased.
BERMAN: That's right, two pistols, a Sig Sauer, a Glock and a rifle apparently a Bushmaster rifle legally purchased by his mother. How he got them from his mother we don't know. Apparently one of the things that investigators are looking into right now.
Mary Snow, thank you so much for that.
There are so many questions about this investigation right now. I was in Hoboken, New Jersey, late last night. Hoboken, New Jersey, was a site of a very active investigation yesterday. Hoboken City Police Bomb Squad members, the FBI there, why? They were looking at the apartment of the brother of the shooter, 24-year-old Ryan Lanza.
Apparently, Adam Lanza, the suspected shooter, had his brother's ID on him. Investigators found his IDs on the body of Adam Lanza. So they went to ask Ryan Lanza, the brother some questions. They had him in custody. They were talking to him. They also removed some materials from that apartment. Just one of the aspects of the confusion yesterday during this investigation -- Ali.
VELSHI: That did add a lot of confusion to this whole episode. They took him into custody, the brother. They also were interviewing the father. It has now John been almost 24 hours since the unimaginable happened here in Newtown, Connecticut. It all started when a gunman entered through the doors of Sandy Hook Elementary School. We are awaiting a press conference. You're looking at that right now. It has not begun, but I do want to give those of you who have joined us a sense of what happened.
Tom Foreman walks us through what happened yesterday morning minute by minute.
(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 time line 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) VELSHI: And for all that we know, all of that detail that Tom Foreman brings us, there's still so much we don't know about this tragedy.
On the right side of your screen, we are preparing for that press conference. There were new security measures that were just implemented at the school. We don't know exactly why the school was targeted by this gunman just yet. We are hoping to get those answers, the answers to those questions fairly soon. What we're expecting to happen though John right now is to get the names, the identities of some of the people.
Let's check in now with Nick Valencia at CNN headquarters in Atlanta. Nick, we know the identity of two of the adults who were killed, the school principal and the school psychologist. The names of the four other adults have just been released.
What do we know?
NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We are still standing by to hear more about the victims, 26 perished in all yesterday at Sandy Hook Elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. Two confirmed names, two victims that we have confirmed so far, Ali, Dawn Hochsprung. She was the principal at Sandy Hook Elementary School since 2010, really described as a teacher's teacher, somebody that you would want teaching your children.
In fact, she was not done with her own education. She just entered a Ph.D. program Ali, continuing on with her education. She spent her career rising through the ranks of the Connecticut school system, spending a lot of time in those small communities working at various elementary schools, middle schools and high schools.
Those who remember her say she created just this wonderful environment that made people feel embraced, accepted, important and above all secure. She leaves behind two daughters and three step-daughters, just a terrible, terrible situation, remembered for her enthusiasm and her wonderful smile. You can see that there.
Now another victim at the school who perished was the school's psychologist. She's being named as Mary Sherlock, 56 years old. She was a really instrumental part of the fabric of that elementary school. In fact, she was part of the crisis intervention program at the school. A lot of people would be turning to her in a time like this, but she's no longer with us Ali. She's being described as somebody who was an expert in psychology. She had her Master's degree in it.
She worked a lot in the community as well, Ali. She worked with disabled adults doing work in the surrounding community. Leaves behind two daughters and a husband named Bill of 31 years, a very sad situation.
Two names of the victims of the six adults that were shot yesterday in Newtown, Connecticut -- Ali
VELSHI: Four other adults shot at the school, adults who were dedicated to the lives of these children, to making those lives better. Nick, we'll stay on top of that.
We'll make sure that in addition to the names of those 20 children we're also going to bring you the names of the four adults whose names we don't know just now. Also the gunman's mother, Nancy Lanza, a victim not at the school, but at her home, the home that she shared with Adam Lanza.
John, you can see there the picture on the side of the screen, the news conference has not begun yet but there's such a pack of people around and behind, in front of. We are expecting and waiting for such important news there, the names of those who were killed John.
BERMAN: The authorities here in Newtown have been so conscientious about keeping everyone updated about what they know. They held a series of news conferences yesterday afternoon into the evening and told us they would be talking to us again this morning here in Newton. That's what we are waiting on right now as you say. You can see people gathering there in the picture right now. We don't have the officials up yet at the podium.
Among the things we expect them to discuss, perhaps the names of some of the victims, ages five to 10 years old, some 20 kids, also the six adults. We heard some about them right now including the principal and the school psychologist. Also the mother of the alleged shooter, Adam Lanza, she was killed, not on location here but apparently in this home, in her home.
This hour we're going to talk to a friend of principal Dawn Hochsprung, but first, Ali, we'll talk more about the situation there. When do we expect, I can't see right now that picture right now, how close we are to that news conference.
VELSHI: I'll give you a sense of it. I'll give you a sense of it. We know that the police officers are here. We know that the state police representatives are here. They were here a few minutes ago. I think they are really trying, you just mentioned that they are really working very, very hard to get information out as quickly as possible. And questions that they have not been able to answer, they keep telling us, we'll be back in an hour with more information.
They did that until 8:00 p.m. last night, 8:00 p.m. Eastern when they told everybody we're going to let you and the media take a break and get some rest. We are going to let our people get some rest but that the crime scenes were not going to be, that there was going to be no rest.
The medical examiner was at the school all night. They were processing those bodies. It was a terrible, terrible task but those parents who knew that their kids hadn't come home, they had some sense obviously, that their kids were not coming back but they were not positively identifying them. They were not able to let the police (sic) into the school obviously so they had tentative identifications on all of the bodies and then got positive identifications from the parents. They were not going to release any names until they had positive identification on everybody. Now where we are, we are at Treadwell Memorial Park. There's a soccer and football field right behind me, a baseball diamond right next to it. The school is over there. The authorities did a good job of making sure they knew there would be global interest in this story and importantly, this is obviously a story that moves everybody. And that's why they set us up over here.
You're in a different location. You're at one of the places where there was a vigil downtown, a lot of activity in this small town -- John.
BERMAN: Absolutely, Ali.
One of the victims here that we know about was the principal of the Sandy Hook school, Dawn Hochsprung. She was described as, quote, a tough lady in the right sort of sense. She'd been working on school security. She was idolized by lot of people in the community. She was a 47-year-old mother of two daughters, three step-daughters when her life came to a tragic end inside that school that she led since 2010.
She had been a school administrator for a dozen years but she'd never given up on learning frankly. The kids, the parents all saying she was creative. They talked about the fun things they did. I heard about dress-up days that she was leading. She was one of just 15 educators in a doctorate program at the Esteves Colleges here in New York. The dean there, Dr. Lori Quigley, joins me right now.
Dr. Quigley, what kind of impression did this principal, Dawn Hochsprung, give to you? What kind of impression did she make on your doctoral students?
LORI QUIGLEY, ESTEVES SCHOOL OF EDUCATION (BY TELEPHONE): I met her first of all when I welcomed the students to our campus last summer. Of the 16 candidates who were accepted into our doctorate program this year, I really honestly have to say she was the one person who just left an indelible mark on me because I was so impressed by her comments, her dedication to her small community in Newtown, Connecticut.
Her fellow classmates were just amazed that she was traveling from Connecticut up to the capital region of New York to pursue her doctorate in educational leadership. She spoke about how she truly believed that her role in education was to create citizen leaders of the elementary children with whom she served. She had an infectious smile; she was always smiling. I think that's another reason why I just remember her so dearly.
BERMAN: Lori, it is not often you hear people in a town, parents and teachers and kids talk about a principal with such reverence. Did she share anything about her school and her students back here in Connecticut?
QUIGLEY: Well in her classes I know that in talking with some of her fellow students and with the professors, she did talk about how she truly did believe in creating an environment where children felt safe, where children treated each other with respect, where it was an environment that truly felt care. And I think that that's really the tragic irony of this entire situation. We opened up an online discussion format for our doctorate candidates to talk to one another. All of our candidates in the program are currently school leaders, whether they're assistant principals, principals, superintendents and it is really hitting them hard because they're ones who also have to go back and forth to work on Monday and talk to their faculty, talk to their staff and talk to them, how do they talk to their children in their schools about this situation?
BERMAN: And how do we make an environment that's safe? We've have seen so many, so many school shootings really since Columbine way back in the 1990s. As a professional educator who works with parents, teachers, administrators, let me first ask you this, what kind of questions should we be asking in the face of this repeated school violence?
QUIGLEY: Well, I think we have to sort of ask ourselves beyond the school environment, first of all, I really do believe in our school environments. Our professionals are dedicated. Their number one focus is the education and the well-being of young children.
But I think beyond that in our society, I think maybe we have to question, you know, what is the impact of media, what's the impact of social media? What's the impact of the lack of appropriate gun control laws? I hear you talking about that and we continue to talk about that after every tragic event, but where is the action as a result of all this talk?
BERMAN: Lori, thank you so much for joining us right now. These are the questions that need to be asked, the discussions that have to happen in the days and weeks ahead. Ali?
VELSHI: All right, John, I want to bring in former FBI Assistant Director Tom Fuentes. He's also a CNN contributor. Tom, I want to ask you something. We're going to be hearing from the police. We may or may not get all of the names of the victims. I don't know why we wouldn't, but last night you would have known who all the victims were.
The parents would have known, obviously, their kids didn't come home and there were four adults. So everybody there knew that. They will not give out the information. They will not give out the names until everybody is positively identified.
Tell me about that process. The bodies stayed in the school all night.
TOM FUENTES, FORMER FBI ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: That's right, Ali. Much on the process now is really looking at the more horrific aspect of this, that where were the children as they were being shot? Where was the shooter? How close was he? So that's part of the question of why those bodies have been in that building all night while they were working on this.
VELSHI: And they would typically not have let the parents into what they were calling an active crime scene. When they said we've got tentative IDs on the bodies, we need positive IDs on the bodies. What does that mean?
FUENTES: They don't want the parents obviously to contaminate the scene. They don't want parents coming in there, maybe being overcome with grief and grabbing their children or having a worse situation inside the school, inside the crime scene. So that would be the reason for the security as they are trying to methodically ensure that they have figured out exactly what happened to each individual child, what the shooter did, where the victims were and then, of course, the identification process that goes with that.
VELSHI: Tom, there's a second crime scene, I was there last night, Mary Snow is there this morning. That's the home of the shooter's mother where we believe the shooter lived. They closed off the entire road. They told families to leave and not come back. What do they do in a scene like that?
FUENTES: Well in that situation they weren't sure if before he went to the school to shoot whether he had set up booby traps or had explosives or other material at that house. So that's why they would have evacuated neighbors just to make sure that there wasn't some greater danger to the community that would have come from that house. So they wanted to make sure that that scene was secure.
And then, of course, they go in and they determine that there's another body there, his mother. And they have to process that. So there's work to be done there, but they have to be, again, very methodical that there weren't some harmful materials that had been placed in there which could affect the neighboring houses and the investigators themselves as they are working.
VELSHI: Tom, this is a small town. As soon as this happened they had mutual aid agreements with neighboring cities. Danbury has got a bigger police force obviously, also the state police were in here. As John Berman said, the authorities have done a fantastic job around here of shepherding everybody and giving a great information flow, but ultimately they are maybe trained for it, but they have had no experience with this. They've had one homicide in this town in 10 years.
What is it like for police in a situation like that who don't deal with these situations on a regular basis? When they get those calls, the 911 dispatch calls them, tells them there's a shooting at a school on lockdown and they are hearing gunfire?
FUENTES: It appears in this case that the police action was exceptionally well coordinated and well executed. They went to the scene. They didn't know if they had more shooters. They had to not only secure the premises, go into the school and make sure that was safe. They had to go throughout the community. You had kids that had run out of that school, no telling where they ran to. The possibility of additional shooters that may have run into the wooded area that surrounds that school, so the police had an overwhelming task from the first minute of this incident to really even continuing now.
So in this case they deferred to the Connecticut state police who took command of the situation and all the other agencies that are working here are under that command and providing assistance to the Connecticut state police and that includes the Federal agencies, the FBI, ATF, any other agencies from throughout the state or other states that came to provide assistance to them.
No one town could handle the situation. The amount of investigative work in this situation is just incredible. And I know from experience that you can't do it by yourself. No one agency could do it. They need everybody's help in this situation.
VELSHI: We are expecting to hear from the Connecticut state police momentarily. That press conference was slated to start almost half hour ago. They are running late. We know they are here. So they are obviously trying to gather as much information as they possibly can. They are doing a great job of trying to keep the country and the world informed as to what they know. John, we'll talk to John Berman in just a moment. Tom Fuentes, thanks very much for that. Let's take a quick break. We'll be right back with that press conference and with more information. You're watching CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The majority of those who died today were children. Beautiful little kids between the ages of five and 10 years old.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: That was a visibly shaken President Obama. A vision of President Obama none of us had ever seen. A vision of a President many of us had never seen. That was just hours after yesterday's terrible shooting here in Newtown, Connecticut.
I'm John Berman we are covering the situation here in Newtown live. I should tell you we're expecting a news conference here shortly any minute, from the Connecticut state police and will bring that to you the second it happens. We have been told to expect they may release some of the names of the victims, including the names of the children, some 20 kids ages five to 10, who were killed in this awful, awful event.
I want to go to Washington now. I want to bring in CNN's White House correspondent Brianna Keilar. And Brianna the President didn't just speak yesterday, he actually dedicated his weekly address to the shooting victims.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And John no doubt his weekly address would have been about the looming fiscal cliff, those spending cuts and tax hikes is set to kick that he's trying to strike a deal with House Republicans on. That is what was occupying Washington, taking up all of the oxygen here until this shooting happened.
Of course, it's not surprising this has completely shifted the conversation in Washington -- President Obama talking about the Connecticut shooting in his weekly address, touching again on a personal note. Here's part of it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: This weekend Michelle and I are doing what I know every parent is doing, holding our children as close as we can and reminding them how much we love them. There are families in Connecticut who can't do that today and they need all of us right now.
Because while nothing can take the place of a lost child or loved one, all of us can extend the hand to those in need to remind them that we're there for them. That we're praying for them. And that the love they felt for those they lost endures not just in their own memories but also in their communities and in their country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Now President Obama had also said in his weekly address that as a nation we have endured far too many of these tragedies in the last few years. And John, that's something that really strikes me when I think of the tragedies that President Obama personally has had to talk about, try to strike this tone of unity on, visit, remember Congresswoman Gabby Giffords. He went to Arizona. Aurora, Colorado, the shooting there he went to Colorado to try to deliver a message of unity, and also that -- that temple shooting in Wisconsin.
So he's dealt with a number of these horrible instances. And I think kind of when you look back here in the last few years, it just strikes you how many and how we have seen so many of them. I will tell you President Obama is receiving regular updates from his homeland security team and his main homeland security adviser. He's also in touch, of course, with state officials in Connecticut getting the very latest on what's happening there -- John.
BERMAN: Brianna, one of the things he mentioned in his remarks yesterday was that he had seen so many of these tragic events like you've said and it was time to take some kind of meaningful action. The words were "meaningful". Has the White House and officials explain exactly what he meant by that?
KEILAR: No they haven't. And I think one of the big questions in this was something that Jay Carney was pressed on in the briefing yesterday was what about gun legislation? This is something that the President has talked about in loose terms but has not proposed specifics on.
Part of that is when you look at Congress, even Democrats, there isn't a will to pass any sort of gun control legislation. It's an issue that's really falling off of the list of priorities of things to do.
This was the case in his last term. This is the expectation in the next term. And it's unclear if this shooting will really further that. I mean we've seen as I mentioned almost this sort of litany of these tragedies, none of which have pushed forward any sort of gun legislation in response to them.
So there will be a lot of questions about how the federal government responds to this, John, but at this point it is unclear and there really aren't any specifics there about whether something new would be proposed, maybe continuing to push existing legislation. We just don't know.
BERMAN: Yes, he used the words "meaningful action yesterday. Mayor Michael Bloomberg who is a fierce gun control advocate said it's time for immediate action not meaningful action. But again we don't have the details exactly about what the President might have said or meant.
Brianna before I let you go, you did mention that what Washington was obsessed was before the shooting was the fiscal cliff -- where are the negotiations there? That was taking up almost all of the President's time. Does he have to juggle this now or how will he juggle this? Is there any sense of what will happen to those discussions the next few days?
KEILAR: You know I -- it is unclear at this point. I will tell you, speaking to aides close to President Obama yesterday this shooting has very much occupied his time. That's not really a surprise, that's what you would expect. He's very much turned his attention to this. That could change in the next couple of days.
And also it's not just President Obama who was involved with the Speaker, with Speaker Boehner in these discussions. There are things going on at the staff level. Those discussions about the fiscal cliff can continue but certainly at least publicly what President Obama will be focused on is the shooting in Connecticut.
BERMAN: That's right. Leading the nation really in grieving and mourning those lost. Brianna Keilar at the White House; thanks for joining us this morning. Great to see you.
It is morning now in Newtown. And the tightly-knit Connecticut town is grieving today like so much of the nation for the 20 children and seven adults who lost their lives so suddenly and so horribly to this gunman. Newtown's stunned residents gathered at vigils last night including one right here behind me at St. Rose of Lima Church to comfort each other. There will be more vigils in the days and nights to come.
I should tell you the people are already streaming into this church today to pray. We want to take a look now at this report from our affiliate, WTIC.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So we need to be here to pray for these people.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Saint Rose will be open for those closest to the tragedy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm in a math class with the boy who's younger brother was killed. And it was really, it was like were in math at 9:30 and then of course it happened you know shortly before 10:00. And it was crazy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Or anyone who feels affected -- UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everyone in the town is really devastated by this thing. And it's such a small town and I feel like this is going to bring everyone together even though it is such a tragedy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And for all those who grieve for lives lost too young.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Like the pastor said, we now have 20 new angels in our town watching over us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: We are in Newtown, Connecticut. We are awaiting a news conference from Connecticut state police to update us on the investigation to update us we were told to expect perhaps to get some names of the victims here in Newtown. That news conference has not started but we will bring it to you the minute, the minute -- the second it begins.
In the meantime, let's go over to my friend Ali Velshi who is also here in Newtown.
VELSHI: And John, it promises to start, it was supposed to be starting about half an hour ago. We've seen the police officials, the state police officials who are here who should be leading this news conference. As you have pointed out, the police officials, the authorities here have been very, very good at giving out information.
They are also interested in giving out accurate information. And many times we find at events like this there's a push to get information out. Look, it's been 23 hours since this happened and already there have been several stories that were thought to be true that have not turned out to be true.
I want to bring in Mike Brooks in Atlanta. He's HLN's law enforcement analyst. Mike you and I have covered a number of these sorts of things in the past, probably none as tragic as this. Let's talk about the shooter, Adam Lanza, who is -- who is alleged to have taken his mother's life at their home about two and a half miles from here and then gone to the school.
He had two guns on him and one a semiautomatic Bushmaster in the car those were apparently licensed to his -- to his mother.
MIKE BROOKS, HLN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Right.
VELSHI: But apparently he had access to at least five guns according to a law enforcement official with direct knowledge of the investigation. He's asked for anonymity because of the ongoing investigation. What do you make of this?
He was found dead in the classroom with two firearms, a Glock and a Sig Sauer. Both of those are guns usually used by -- by law enforcement. They can be bought by a civilian but they are -- they are very popular amongst law enforcement. BROOKS: They are. I mean, I had a Sig Sauer when I was assigned at the FBI, a 45 caliber Sig Sauer that I carried as my service weapon. And I own a number of Glock hand guns, Ali. And you know they are not cheap guns, they are -- they are high-quality semiautomatic handguns. And again, they belonged to his mother.
But he had apparently direct access to these guns. So -- and he apparently, probably most likely, had not have any kind of background check, but we don't know what transpired inside that house before he came to that school and went on a rampage. But if you're looking at - we are looking at the pictures of these weapons right now.
You know we saw the Glock on the upper left. We saw the Sig Sauer. We don't know what caliber these handguns were. These are examples right here. And we don't know if it was a .9 millimeter or a 40 caliber, or a 45.
But then you look at the Bushmaster we don't know exactly what model of Bushmaster it was. But it's AR-15 type weapon, Ali, that fires a 223 cartridge and it basically like what our military uses. And -- and a lot of people say well, why -- why would anyone have this gun? There are a lot of people who do own weapons like this Ali for target shooting. Some people, even hunt with them. But there are a lot of them out there and people do use them for target practice and also -- and also self-defense.
(CROSSTALK)
BERMAN: And that will -- go ahead.
BROOKS: And also self defense.
BERMAN: We -- under what circumstances would you be using a Bushmaster for self-defense?
BROOKS: Well, a lot of people feel that they need to have one in their home for whatever reason. And it is -- you can use any weapon for self-defense. But you know, but again, that that again stirs a lot of controversy. And you know a lot of discussion about -- about gun laws, but -- but I'm sure that we'll be talking about that as we move forward from this event.
BERMAN: Yes Mike, Connecticut is one of those states that does have some strict gun laws. They got a gun registry -- you have to -- you have to meet certain requirements here. You have to take a course, in fact, in -- in gun operation.
Talk to me about those -- those pistols. What do you make of -- of those pistols? They -- they -- the pictures we showed, which are not the guns that were used --
BROOKS: Right.
BERMAN: -- have a standard magazine of about 15 -- 15 bullets? 15 rounds? BROOKS: Yes, magazines in those range from 15 to 19. They do -- they do make extended magazines for each of those weapons that can hold possibly up to 30 rounds, it depends if it's a single or double stack magazine. But we don't know, we have not heard how many magazines he had inside that school.
But as Tom Fuentes has pointed out earlier, if he did have extra magazines and he came in and he had to reload, he probably was not you know and nobody was challenging him because they were all little children with some of the adult teachers, Ali. So he would just walk around with impunity shooting at these little children.
BERMAN: Right. The teachers were occupied, those that we have been able to find out were occupied and tried to protect those kids.
BROOKS: Right.
VELSHI: Hide them and cover them so they weren't in a position to confront him.
BROOKS: No.
VELSHI: All right, Mike, thanks very much for that. We'll check in with you later, Mike Brooks, a former FBI as well. So many questions, so few answers right now. Teachers and emergency responders talking about how to keep their schools safe and many parents are consoling their children.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DECLAN PROCACCINI, PARENT: My kids are already asking when is this going to happen again. It was only a -- it was only a week ago that we were talking about this type of situation and I said, the chances of it happening are one in a zillion at Sandy Hook. And I was wrong about that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: 8:45 Eastern time. Welcome back, everyone. I'm Ali Velshi.
You are watching our special coverage of the Connecticut school shooting. We are live in Newtown, Connecticut. We are also getting some insight into how all of this unfolded. Here's a small part of the radio transmission between police when they got word of the shooting.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 6-7 Sandy Hook School. The caller is indicating she thinks there's someone shooting in the building.
The front glass has been broken (ph). They are unsure why. All units, the individual that I have on the phone is continuing to hear what he believes to be gunfire.
Unit responding to Sandy Hook School at this time. The shooting appears to have stopped (inaudible). The school is in lockdown.
VELSHI: John Berman is also with me in Newtown, Pennsylvania (SIC). In fact, we have our CNN team spread across the city. John, you are at the site of one of several vigils that were held last night. And this town wakes up this morning to a press conference we are just waiting to begin to get that started where they are going to, we expect, hear the names of those 20 children, six adults.
We know two of the adults' names. A principal and the psychologist from the school, but we're going to hear a lot more names. And it's going to send this town reeling all over again, John.
BERMAN: Yes, you know, Ali, this is the St. Rose of Lima Church behind me right now where last night there was a vigil. A thousand people were here inside and outside this church to mourn together, to grieve together. This town really is going through this as one tight-knit community.
I heard bells a short while ago and I didn't know why or where they were ringing, but it did give the sense of togetherness that has really permeated this whole community. Inside the church right now, which by the way is filling up again this morning with parents, families, people here to share in this moment. There are two bulletin boards set up for people to start posting messages -- messages of hope and messages of mourning.
I spoke to a father a short while ago, Ali, of a child, an 8-year-old girl, a third grader, a survivor from this. And he, like so many parents, is struggling to talk to his kids this weekend. They want to know how do you communicate to them what happened and what should happen?
He told me that his kids, his 8-year-old girl and 10-year-old son are distraught. He says they don't want to go back to school on Monday, which is understandable. There has to be so many emotions going through their heads right now.
And from the young children who are students at Sandy Hook Elementary School to their frightened parents, CNN's Brian Todd has more on those who were witnesses to Friday's tragic events.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The account of a young boy set to be delivering an attendance report to the office at Sandy Hook Elementary School when the shootings took place is surreal.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I saw some of the bullets going past the hall that I was right next to. And then a teacher pulled me into her classroom.
TODD: He said he heard a sound like someone kicking a door. His mother clinging to him had words of thanks.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm just so grateful to the teacher who saved him.
TODD (on camera): Ok. Thank you. The teacher -- 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 and pulled them into a classroom.
TODD (voice-over): Brendan Murray, a fourth grader, described the chaos.
BRENDAN MURRAY, SANDY HOOK STUDENT: I was in the gym at the time, and so the teacher -- we heard like lots of bangs, and we thought that it was the custodian knocking stuff down. Then we heard screaming. And so we -- so we -- we went on to, like we went to the wall and we sat down.
And then a police came in, it's like, is he in here? Then he ran out. Then our teacher, then somebody yelled, get to a safe place. So we went to the closet in the gym and sat there for a little while. And then the police were knocking on the door and they are like, "We are evacuating people, we are evacuating people."
TODD: CNN is only airing sound of children whose parents gave permission.
As one woman walked away from the school she was heard crying, "Why? Why?" A policeman was heard saying it was the worst thing he'd seen in his career. A nurse from nearby Danbury Hospital described the scene there as parents waited for word on their children.
MAUREEN KERINS, NURSE, DANBURY HOSPITAL: All these parents were waiting for their children to come out. They thought that they were, you know, still alive. There was 20 parents that were just told that their children are dead. It was awful.
TODD: The father of a young girl who survived was just trying to process it all.
JOE WASIK, FATHER OF SURVIVOR: It was shocking. I got the call at work this morning and I can't believe a small town like this would ever have anything like this happen. And to be in an elementary school, that's unheard of.
TODD: By late Friday afternoon and into the evening, evacuated children were being cared for and reuniting with their parents at a nearby firehouse.
Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BERMAN: All right. Thanks to Brian. We are still waiting on a news conference here by Connecticut state police where authorities are expected to release the names of those 20 children and 6 adults who were gunned down inside Sandy Hook Elementary School. And we are going to learn more perhaps about the gunman.
I want to check in right now with Nick Valencia at CNN Center in Atlanta. Nick, we do have some more information right now, I believe, about the father of the gunman. What information do you have?
NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John. Our news desk team has been working tirelessly to try to get the latest information on the victims. And just a short while ago we were able to clear the usage of a LinkedIn profile for the father of the suspected shooter, Adam Lanza. The father here as you may see here -- if we can bring that picture up, Peter Lanza -- this is the photo of the father, of the suspected shooter, 20-year-old shooter Adam Lanza.
This picture just in to CNN; this is his father, Peter Lanza. CNN has made efforts to reach out to Peter Lanza, I tried to get him on the phone. Have so far been unsuccessful this morning but we are making efforts to get in touch with him.
Again, if you're just joining us, this photo has just come in to CNN. This is the photo of the father of the suspected shooter Adam Lanza. This pictured on the screen is Peter Lanza. CNN has tried to reach out to Mr. Lanza and so far has been unsuccessful.
John we will bring you the latest. Of course, we're still standing by for what was an 8:00 a.m. scheduled press conference running about an hour late here, but local police are expected to release the names of more victims. So far we have been able to confirm the names of two victims, two adults; two of the six adults shot yesterday in Newtown, Connecticut at Sandy Hook Elementary School -- John.
BERMAN: All right, Nick Valencia at the CNN Center in Atlanta. Thank you for bringing us that.
And again, as Nick said, we are awaiting a news conference here. Moments away, we think, from Connecticut state police where they are expected to release some of the names of the victims of those killed inside the school.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BERMAN: Welcome back, everyone. John Berman here in Newtown, Connecticut where we are awaiting a news conference from the Connecticut state police who have been so conscientious in updating us on the situation here.
The investigation, they were doing it every hour yesterday afternoon and into the evening. And they scheduled a news conference for this morning as well. It was supposed to begin one hour ago. It's obviously been delayed. We have seen officials there milling about so hopefully it will get going soon. They have been good about giving us accurate information. Perhaps they are getting the last bit of information together now. We'll bring you that news conference the minute it begins.
