reporter: parents lucky enough to find them safe held them tight. and the questions began. i don t know how they came in, because every time you go in you have to ring a bell. reporter: people began lining up outside in nearby churches to pray. the sheer numbers overwhelmed not just the community but all of community. officials had to pull in medical examiners from out of state, attention soon focused on the shooter. breaking news right now, state police are responding to a report of a school shooting in newtown, connecticut. reporter: he has been identified as twenty-year-old adam lanza, police and officials say he was dressed in black and armed with at least two guns when he entered the school. his target was apparently the kindergarten classroom. he walked in and opened fire. then police say he killed himself. and just when they thought he had recovered all the victims, police found one more. this time not at the school. a body believed to be lanza s
safe, held them tight. and the questions began. i don t know how they came in, because every time you go in you have to ring a bell. reporter: people began lining up outside in nearby churches to pray. the sheer numbers overwhelmed not just the community but all of connecticut. officials had to pull in medical examiners from out of state, attention soon focused on the shooter. breaking news right now. state police are responding to a report of a school shooting in newtown, connecticut. reporter: he has been identified as twenty-year-old adam lanza, police and federal officials say he was dressed in black and armed with at least two guns when he entered the school. his target was apparently the kindergarten classroom. he walked in and opened fire. then police say he killed himself. and just when they thought they had recovered all the victims, police found one more. this time, not at the school. a body believed to be lanza s mother was discovered inside her newtown home, where t
craig, is the ages of those 20 young victims that most of these shootings took place in a kindergarten classroom. those identifications haven t been made. we are obviously talking about 5 and 6-year-olds. that s probably why we have seen so much international media as well. and also, the chilling accuracy of the shooting. i was thinking about columbine which was the first mass shooting i went to. 13 people were killed there. but 24 survived. in this case, of course, 28 people were killed, including the shooter. and there is only one survivor. you know, i also am i have to say that i see a lot of similarities as well. obviously the horror and heartbreak, all of them share that. when i was coming into town, i saw the christmas lights, you couldn t help but think how many trees in this town have christmas presents under them that will never be opened. but also, the stories of heroism, we remember, from aurora, colorado.
record things that indicate that the whole thing only took a matter of minutes. it may volume taken two minutes to kill 20 little kids in a kindergarten classroom. six adults and for the gunman to turn the gun on himself. nbc news has confirmed that adam lanza did try to buy a gun three days before this terrible massacre. but he was refused and instead as we have been reporting all along, he used guns that belonged to his mother. now, his aunt who was interviewed by a local tv station in north carolina says that the mother was something of a survivalist. she feared economic collapse and two sources have told nbc news that he was at least for a time home schooled. this is someone whose description fits so closely to other shooters that we have heard about in previous mass shootings. that he was a loner. many people thought he was intelligent and his brother told
hometown when all of that transpired. but there is something about five and six-year-olds. we know that one of the major scenes there was a kindergarten classroom. something about that that has touched so many people. not just here but around the world. i have been surprised to see the way the media has come here from china, from japan, from canada, from russia. when i first came on the scene i actually heard more people speaking foreign languages than i heard english. so this is something that people are struggling to understand. but of course, no more so than in this community that woke up this morning to a completely changed way of life. nobody ever obviously expects this to happen. but so close to christmas, so many people, considering this a time of celebration and the young, the young young people who were 20 of the victims here yes. and i think that is what has resonated throughout the world. you mention all the international reaction.