Newtown: An American Tragedy (17 page)

T
he morning of December 14 began as a day of celebration for staff at the
Newtown Bee.
It had just closed its latest weekly edition, which included a front-page report on how well Newtown schools were meeting state standards, when they discovered one of their employees had won a radio contest. News of the award, a catered Christmas party for the entire office, sparked shouts of joy from inside the small red clapboard house that served as the
Bee
headquarters.

Then at 9:35:53
A.M.
a short blurb came across the police scanner in the
Bee
office.

“Six-seven. Sandy Hook School, caller’s indicated she thinks someone is shooting in the building,” the dispatcher deadpanned.

A staffer heard the dispatch and alerted Shannon Hicks, an associate editor, who walked to the back of the office toward the scanner in time to hear the next dispatch twenty-two seconds later:
“The individual I have on the phone is continuing to hear what he believes to be gunshots.”

Hicks grabbed her camera and jumped into her 2006 Jeep Wrangler. The school was located only a mile and a quarter from the newspaper’s offices. As Hicks pulled onto Riverside Road, she quickly found herself behind a dozen police officers all racing toward Dickinson Drive at full speed, sirens blaring.

A shooting at Sandy Hook? It just seemed too difficult to fathom. It just wasn’t the kind of place where school shootings happened.
It must be a domestic dispute,
assumed Hicks as she followed the speeding caravan of emergency vehicles.

Over the course of its 135-year history, the
Bee
has written hundreds of articles about Sandy Hook Elementary School, noting exceptional teachers and chronicling the honor roll activities of the student body. Owned by the same family since it was founded in 1877, the oversize paper’s staff of eight reporters and editors takes pride in its hyperlocal coverage, which circulates to about two-thirds of the community.

One popular refrain in the office, that no story is too small to cover, is a motto put to practice across the pages of every issue. The happenings at Sandy Hook Elementary School, no matter how trivial, are always fodder for coverage at the
Bee.

As she pulled down Dickinson Drive, with one hand on the steering wheel, Hicks began taking photographs through the windshield of her car. A moment after pulling up near the school, she saw Officer Chapman emerge from the front entrance, cradling a bleeding little girl in his arms as he screamed: “Get the bus!”

The twenty-plus-year veteran journalist tried to stay focused,
composing each image through the eyepiece of her camera. She aimed her lens and pushed down on the shutter. Hicks, who also serves as a volunteer at Sandy Hook Volunteer Fire & Rescue, then cried out for help. “We need an ambulance,” she screamed.

As she looked down to study the image on her camera, she realized it was a photograph that would never see print.

The ambulance pulled up to the entrance. As Officer Chapman approached, he lost his strength and fell to the ground. Several first responders sprang to his aid, picked him up off the ground by his shoulders, and carried the little girl’s lifeless body into the ambulance before racing away with lights blaring.

The scene quickly descended into further chaos. A line of fourteen anguished children, their hands on their classmates’ shoulders, their eyes closed tightly, was being led out of the school with a teacher in front, a teacher in back, and police at both sides. Looks of horror spread across their faces. Then a second class was evacuated. More children walking single file with hands on each other’s shoulders. Eyes closed. They were talking about the wild animal that had gotten loose inside the school. Followed by parents rushing in from all directions. A police officer holding his rifle tight to his chest was standing near the school’s entrance, ordering parents to stay back. As they stood outside the front entrance, many began yelling for their children by name.

“What kind of person would do something like this?” a young man standing outside the school began screaming.

A Connecticut State Trooper got out of his car, put on his flak jacket, and announced loudly, “This scene is not secure.”

Another reporter from the
Newtown Bee
had shown up. Shannon Hicks handed him the memory card out of her camera, which had all of her images on it, retrieved her Sandy Hook volunteer firefighter uniform, got dressed, and began helping other volunteers set up a triage area near the baseball field to treat the casualties they expected to soon come out of the school.

I
t started out as a breaking news alert at 10:30
A.M.

The first page from CNN read: “Connecticut State Police are responding to reports of a shooting at a Newtown elementary school in southwestern Connecticut, according to police spokesman Lt. Paul Vance.”

The
Hartford Courant
and the
Stamford Advocate,
along with a CNN live truck and several local print and television media were en route. Seventeen minutes later an alert splashed on the computer screens of editors around the country. The link led to a short story posted by the wire services:

NEWTOWN, Conn. - Connecticut State Police say they are assisting local police in Newtown amid reports of a shooting at an elementary school.

The shooting was reported at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, in western Connecticut.

The
Hartford Courant
reports there are multiple injuries and unconfirmed reports that one of the shooters is dead while the other is still at large.

The school superintendent’s office says the district has
locked down schools to ensure the safety of students and staff.

State police spokesman Lt. Paul Vance says they have a number of personnel on the scene to assist.

Multiple injuries? Two shooters? Inside an elementary school in a small upper-middle-class town? There were still few details, but it was enough for editors to justify deploying resources. A steady caravan of reporters, photographers, and television trucks were immediately dispatched from New York City.

Meanwhile, the seven fire trucks at the Sandy Hook volunteer firehouse were cleared from their garages to make room for the scores of children being marched along the four-hundred-foot path from the elementary school. John Voket, the
Bee
’s government reporter, was inside. He went as a reporter, but soon after realizing the scope of the tragedy, focused instead on trying to help in any way he could. As he walked around, trying to get a handle on the situation, concerned parents were calling him on his cell phone, giving descriptions of their children in hopes that he could help find them amid the chaos.

The CNN News blog began churning out minute-by-minute updates from Sandy Hook, streaming out the information to its 36,000 followers on Twitter, and 79,000 on Facebook in real time. The updates hit the mobile devices of editors at news services across the country.

10:53
A.M.
Sandy Hook school is on lockdown and students are now being evacuated, a Newtown police spokesman tells us.

11:03
A.M.
We’re still getting details in of how many people may have been hurt.

11:10
A.M.
Details are still really sketchy, but we now have a photo from the Newtown Bee of children being led from the scene.

11:27
A.M.
The Hartford Courant
citing police, said an unspecified number of people had been shot. The nature of their injuries was unclear, the newspaper said. But it cited police in saying one person had “numerous gunshot wounds.”

L
ike most people around the country, Ryan Lanza was closely following breaking news of the tragedy coming out of his hometown as it was unfolding. Sitting behind his desk at Ernst & Young, he stared up at the images being broadcast by CNN on a small television above him, seemingly fixated on the screen. Ryan had started at the financial company in 2008, following in his father’s footsteps in the tax practice. During his time there he had earned a reputation as a diligent worker and was popular with his coworkers.

This morning, as he stared at the screen, a coworker noticed he wasn’t his usual affable self.

“Aren’t you from there?” a coworker asked.

Ryan nodded his head, and in a hushed voice said, “That’s where I went to school.”

A
s the morning progressed, CNN’s reporters remained head and shoulders ahead of the other news outlets, pushing out new details on its blog.

11:34
A.M.
The shooter is dead, a source with knowledge of the investigation tells CNN’s Susan Candiotti. Police have recovered two weapons from him, the source added.

11:45
A.M.
At least three people were wounded and are in “very serious” condition at a hospital in Danbury, Conn., that town’s mayor, Mark Boughton told CNN. He couldn’t say whether the victims were children. It’s not known whether police killed the alleged shooter or he took his own life. The source says one weapon recovered is a Glock and the other is a Sig Sauer.

12:02 
P.M
. Multiple local media are reporting there are fatalities. We’re checking.

By 12:37
A.M.
the CNN news crew had arrived at the scene and found a young third-grade student whose parents agreed to allow her to be interviewed.

“Was everyone crying, scared, and wanting their parents to come get them?” the anchor asked the young student.

As they spoke, the screamer across the bottom of the screen read, “Breaking News: Shooting at Elementary School. Mayor: at least three victims at hospital; condition ‘very serious.’ ”

“Yeah, they were, and then some people were even, like, it sounded like they had a stomachache,” the young girl answered.

12:48
P.M.
“Close to 20” people have been killed, including at least 10 children, a law enforcement source with knowledge of the investigation says.

L
aw enforcement had initially leaked the name Ryan Lanza to several reporters, including one at the
Stamford Advocate,
shortly before 1
P.M.
A reporter was sent to the brick ranch house on Bartina Lane in the high-end section of Stamford to confirm. The reporter, Maggie Gordon, knew she was at the right address when she saw the police arrive. They knocked on the door, waited a few minutes, and left.

A moment after the police left, shortly after 1:30
P.M.
, a blue Mini Cooper pulled into the driveway. It was Peter Lanza. He saw the young reporter standing on his property and rolled down his window. “Is there something I can do for you?” he asked politely.

“I am a reporter for the
Stamford Advocate,
” Maggie informed him, waiting for a moment of recognition that never came. “I’d been told someone at this address was connected to the shootings in Newtown.”

According to the reporter’s account in the
Stamford Advocate
:

His expression twisted from patient, to surprise to horror; it was obvious that this moment, shortly after 1:30
P.M.
Friday, was the first time he had considered his family could have been involved. He quickly declined to comment, rolled up the window, parked in the right side of the two-car garage and closed the door.

Moments later the reporter could see him sitting at a table in the front of his three-bedroom house, a phone to his left ear and a palm to his right cheek.

M
ore from CNN:

1:51
P.M.
The death toll is closer to 30 than 20, a federal law enforcement source in Washington told CNN’s John King. Most of those killed are children, the source said.

1:57
P.M.
We have just learned that the suspected shooter is 20 years old, a law enforcement source with knowledge of the investigation tells CNN’s Susan Candiotti.

2:11
P.M.
CNN’s Susan Candiotti has just reported that a law enforcement official tells her the suspect is named Ryan Lanza and he is in his 20s.

Ryan Lanza, still sitting at his desk in Times Square, realized he was being accused of mass murder at the same moment that the rest of the world did. He told his boss he needed to leave immediately, offering no explanation, and walked out of his office building and began pleading his innocence through social media.

Ten minutes after CNN identified the shooter as Ryan Lanza, Fox News followed, and four minutes after that it was all over MSNBC. As soon as the name emerged, reporters and producers around the country went straight to social media. On Ryan Lanza’s Facebook profile page it appeared that they had found the perfect match, straight out of central casting. Ryan’s profile showed a young
white male in his twenties dressed in black and wearing aviator sunglasses, from Newtown, Connecticut, who currently lived in Hoboken, New Jersey.