First-grader survived by playing dead

First-grader survived by playing dead

www.abcnews.go.com

Newtown pastor Jim Solomon told ABC News that the daughter of a mother he was comforting was the only one to survive the shooting inside her first grade classroom. The little girl played dead as gunman Adam Lanza killed everyone around her. WATCH VIDEO BELOW

She lived by pretending she was dead.

A 6-year-old girl survived by playing dead as Sandy Hook Elementary School shooter Adam Lanza sprayed her classroom with bullets, killing everyone around her, a Newtown, Conn., pastor told ABC News.  

Pastor Jim Solomon, who counseled the girl’s mother in the aftermath of Friday's horrific mass shooting, told ABC News that the unidentified first-grader was the first student to emerge from Sandy Hook after the massacre, her school clothes soaked in her classmates’ blood.

“Mommy, I’m okay, but all my friends are dead,” the little girl said, according to Solomon.

The girl was the only survivor in a class of 16 people, according to ABC News.

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The rest fell victim to Lanza’s senseless rampage, which left 28 dead, including 20 children, Lanza's mother and the gunman himself. 

“Somehow, in that moment, by God’s grace, (she) was able to act as if she was already deceased,” Solomon said.

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When asked by her parents what she saw, the girl said she saw someone who was “angry” and “very mad,” Solomon said. 

The little girl’s mom --- while relieved that her little girl was spared â€" was grieving for her friends and suffering from “survivor’s guilt,” Solomon said.

“So many of her friends no longer have their children, but she has hers,” the pastor told ABC News.

According to official accounts of the massacre, Lanza, 20, shot up two first grade classrooms with a .223 caliber Bushmaster assault rifle before turning the gun on himself.

It wasn’t clear which classroom the girl who survived was in.

One teacher, Vicky Soto, 27, used her body to shield her students when the maniacal gunman began firing, according to authorities.  

Teacher’s aide Rachel D’Avino, 29, did the same.

Just two days before, her boyfriend had asked her parents if he could propose to her on Christmas Eve.

On Monday, authorities said they were questioning two adults who were wounded in the shooting but survived.

The witnesses were not identified. State police said they would be key to helping authorities reconstruct the massacre.

With News Wire Services