Gunman killed mom, went on rampage at school where she worked before shooting himself; 28 dead including 20 kids

Gunman killed mom, went on rampage at school where she worked before shooting himself; 28 dead including 20 kids

A mass murderer executed his mother with her own gun and then slaughtered 20 helpless kids and a half-dozen staffers in a ghastly killing spree at a Connecticut elementary school.

The unthinkable Friday morning carnage inflicted by heavily armed gunman Adam Lanza in suburban Newtown staggered the nation and reduced a shaken President Obama to tears.

The savage shooter never spoke as he sprayed the Sandy Hook Elementary School with dozens of bullets just 25 minutes after the morning bell started classes inside the typically quiet one-story school.

Hours later, as the investigation continued, the children’s bodies and the killer’s corpse remained inside the school where Lanza’s mother, Nancy, reportedly had taught. By late last night, parents were being called one at a time to make identifcations, according to one report.

Lanza, 20, did all his damage with two 9-mm. handguns after driving to the school in his dead mother’s car around 9:30 a.m., strolling inside and opening fire, authorities said.

The guns, in a particularly cruel twist, were reportedly legally registered to his mother.

The slain students ranged in age from 5 to 10. Eighteen of them were killed in two classrooms in one section of the building, said Connecticut State Police Lt. J. Paul Vance.

The school’s principal, pyschologist and vice principal were meeting with a parent when they stepped out into a hallway upon hearing the noise, the parent told CNN. The principal and psychologist were killed, and the the vice principal was wounded.

None of the investigators was prepared for the horror that awaited inside the school-turned-crime scene, he added.

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The rampage was the second-deadliest school shooting in U.S. history, behind only the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre of 32 people.

One witness said Friday’s masked killer, clad in black camouflage, might have fired up to 100 shots in just two minutes as terrified kids cowered in classrooms and closets â€" and heroic workers hustled to keep them alive.

Music teacher Maryrose Kristopik was hailed as a hero for barricading 15 children in one closet, where they could hear the bloodthirsty Lanza screaming, “Let me in!”

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“I tried to talk to them calmly,” the 50-year-old veteran teacher told the Daily News. “Now it’s time to focus on helping the families who lost their children.”

Fourth-grader C.J. Hoekenga said the music class was watching “The Nutcracker” when the classroom filled with banging noises, heavy breathing â€" and then gunshots.

Once inside the closet, the students prayed together until a police officer knocked and told them to exit single file.

“I’m relieved that most of the children got out, and the man behind this is dead,” the student said.

A fearless school custodian ran through the halls telling people to find cover as the gunshots rang and smoke from the handguns wafted through the hallways.

“So he was actually a hero,” fourth-grade teacher Theodore Varga said of the unidentified man. He wasn’t sure if the custodian made it out alive.

In addition to the 18 slain kids inside Sandy Hook, two other children in the kindergarten-to-4th-grade school were rushed from the school and died a short time later at a nearby hospital.

“I’ve got bodies here,” said an officer calling the Newtown dispatcher. “Need ambulances.”

The nightmarish assault, which was over nearly as abruptly as it began, ended when Lanza used one of the murder weapons to take his own life inside a classroom already filled with young bodies.

Adam Lanza was carrying his brother’s ID, which caused initial confusion about his identity, the Hartford Courant reported.

Divorced mom Nancy Lanza was killed in the Newtown home that she shared with her younger son before he set off on his last, lethal trip.

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The pair lived in an upscale part of the suburban town, surrounded by professionals who commuted to their jobs from bucolic Newtown.

The number of young lives snuffed out by the lone gunman devastated local residents and politicians.

“These are beautiful children who had their lives taken away from them,” said Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy. “It’s a tragedy of unspeakable terms . . . Evil visited this community today.”

In New York, Mayor Bloomberg expressed sorrow over the young lives lost and renewed anger over the proliferation of guns on America’s streets.

“We heard after Columbine that it was too soon to talk about gun laws,” Bloomberg said in a statement. “We heard it after Virginia Tech. After Tucson and Aurora and Oak Creek. And now we are hearing it again. For every day we wait, 34 more people are murdered with guns.”

The first slain student identified was 7-year-old Ana Grace Marquez, who is related to the mayor of Maunabo in Puerto Rico.

“Our family is very united, and waited all day for news,” Jorge Marquez told Elnuevodia.com. “There is no turning back.”

There was no indication of the killing to come when the school day started just 11 days before Christmas. But a desperate 911 call to Newtown police made it clear something had gone horribly wrong in the town of about 27,000.

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Lanza left his mother’s body behind as he drove to the school, with a .223-caliber rifle in the trunk. He carried a pair of handguns â€" a Glock and a Sig Sauer â€" inside with him after apparently parking the car in a fire lane.

It was unclear what set off his rage, but Lanza â€" who suffered from a personality disorder â€" headed directly toward a kindergarten class once inside, authorities said.

A 9-year-old girl reported hearing a howl broadcast across the school intercom as the gunshots began. But many students had no idea what the sound was â€" some thought it was the custodian moving things, other thought it sounded like falling cans.

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Other kids said they were told to “cover their eyes” as they scurried to safety with teachers through the shattered glass and carnage. Many wept and held hands while fleeing the school and the killer.

The gunfire erupted near the main office and soon spread to the two classrooms.

One parent, speaking to CNN, said she was in a meeting with Principal Dawn Hochsprung, school psychologist Mary Sherlach and the vice principal when the gunfire began.

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The trio walked out into the hallway â€" where the parent later saw the principal and psychologist lying dead in pools of their blood.

The vice principal, with a gunshot wound to the foot, escaped death by crawling to safety â€" the only shooting victim to survive the fatal fusillade. She was rushed to Danbury Hospital.

Sherlach, of Trumbull, Conn., was mourned Friday by her two daughters â€" who learned about her death from television reports.

“She was always helpful, always upbeat,” said her son-in-law, Eric Schwartz. “She was truly a nice woman, as kind as can be.”

Dr. Joseph Murphy, CEO of the health care network that includes Danbury, said the staff was stunned by what happened. Although he would not confirm it, it appeared two of the youngsters died in the facility.

“We did the best we could,” he said. “It’s the most traumatic event. It’s unthinkable. We’re all hurting here.”

Police responding to the scene never fired a single round. Instead, they scoured the building inch by inch and room by room, barging into the gym at one point.

“Is he in here?” barked one officer before moving on.

One parent recounted how his 6-year-old son helped steer his classmates to safety after they watched Lanza gun down their teacher.

“That’s when my son grabbed a bunch of his friends and ran out the door,” said dad Robert Licata. “He was very brave. He waited for his friends.”

As word of the slayings spread through the sleepy Fairfield County town, anguished parents â€" along with relatives of the staff â€" rushed to the school seeking information on their family members.

One weeping woman clutched a cell phone while waiting for word of her sister outside the school.

“There’s no words,” said Richard Wilford after his 7-year-old son Richie emerged unscathed. “It’s sheer terror, a sense of imminent danger.”

The boy’s second-grade teacher locked the front door of Richie’s classroom and kept the students huddled in a corner until the gunfire stopped, Wilford said.

Once the surviving students were hustled to safety at a nearby firehouse, it became clear to authorities that nearly an entire class of kids remained missing.

“There are parents everywhere crying,” said Aberta Vajraliu after an emotional reunion with her fourth-grade daughter. “People are crying, people are praying. Everyone is so shocked. What else can you do but pray?”

Teary teachers were shaking as they exited the building. “Everyone was traumatized,” said Mergim Bajraliu, 17, who found his kid sister outside the school after hearing the gunshots at his nearby home.

Blood and shattered glass were everywhere in the aftermath of the relentless attack. Local residents rushed to the school only to find they had arrived too late.

“There were a bunch of people there to help,” said Maureen Kerins, a nurse who came from her home. “But then they told us they didn’t need our help. ... That’s when I knew it was bad.”

The slain students included a relative of an NYPD lieutenant. The names of the young victims were not released by authorities.

President Obama was briefed early Friday on the mass killing and ordered the White House flag flown at half-staff to honor the innocent victims.

“Our hearts are broken today,” said a clearly upset Obama, pausing at times to compose himself in an unprecedented show of emotion. “As a country, we have been through this too many times.”

The president said it was time to “take meaningful action” in response to the deaths of so many â€" particularly the slain children who “had their entire lives ahead of them.”

Brenda Lebinski was among the anxious parents outside the school, looking for her 8-year-old daughter.

“I saw her and it was the happiest moment of my life,” she said.

Dad Stephen Delgiadice said his 8-year-old daughter, who escaped unharmed, reported hearing two big bangs before teachers told her to get in a corner.

“It’s alarming, especially in Newtown, Connecticut, which we always thought was the safest place in America,” he said.

A long line of ambulances and law enforcement vehicles were parked outside the school. Police with search dogs went through the school building after the gunfire stopped.

Connecticut officials put out a call to surrounding states for more coroners to assist with the autopsies.

The killer’s older brother, Ryan, was questioned for several hours at the FBI office in Newark. Authorities said they believe he had no idea a crime was in the works.

But they sealed off the street outside the Hoboken, N.J., apartment of 24-year-old Ryan, who said he last saw his brother in 2010.

The Lanza brothers’ father, Peter, was divorced from Nancy Lanza a few years ago, and she kept custody of Adam.

Lanza appeared stunned Friday afternoon when told by a reporter about the slaying of his ex-wife and the suicide of his son Adam.

An overflow crowd turned out for a vigil at St. Rose Church in Newtown, where the congregation included as many as 10 of the slain students. The hushed crowd, with some holding candles, prayed the Hail Mary and the Our Father.

Lilia Alvarez said her daughter Cynthia, 8, was in her third-grade class when the shooting occurred.

“I’m relieved I’m here with her and able to hug her,” said the still-rattled mom. “Unfortunately it’s not the same for everybody. She didn’t hear anything, because the teacher reacted quick. She locked the doors and hid the kids in the corner and she called the police right away.”

A second vigil, at the Newtown Methodist Church, drew about 150 stunned and sobbing locals trying to make sense of the unthinkable. One of the slain kids attended the church.

“All they did was go to school,” said Rebecca Leavy of East Haven. “I just came to support the families. I thought, if I can do this vigil maybe it will help me make some sense of this tragedy.

“I’m praying for the families. . . . It doesn’t make sense â€" this town, you walk on cobblestone sidewalks. It’s a little New England village."

Dawn Ballard of Sandy Hook, the mother of twins who attended kindergarten in Newtown, said: “There are no words to talk about what devastation and loss this is.”

Reported by Ben Chapman, Kerry Wills, Teri Thompson, Matthew Lysiak, Barry Paddock, Chelsia Rose Marcius, Mary Jo Kinser and

lmcshane@nydailynews.com