Connecticut shooting: Doctor's grief as he reveals tiny victims of Sandy Hook gunman were hit by up to ELEVEN bullets each

More details are starting to emerge about the carnage, which also claimed the lives of seven adults and the suspected gunman.
'The worst I've ever seen:' Doctor's grief as he reveals tiny victims of Sandy Hook gunman were hit by up to ELEVEN bullets each,

An emotional Connecticut Chief state medical examiner H. Wayne Carver II (left) said that in his three decades in practice, the shooting was the 'worst I know of any of my colleagues having seen'. The tiny victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting on Friday have been identified, with all 20 students shot aged six and seven. The pictured children are (clockwise from top left): Noah Pozner, James Mattioli, Grace McDonnell, Caroline Previdi, Emilie Parker, Jessica Rekos, Dylan Hockley, Catherine Hubbard, Chase Kowalski and Jesse Lewis. President Barack Obama is expected to join residents as they remember their dead later today.
Here is what is known so far about the events which began on a seemingly ordinary Friday morning, only weeks away from the Christmas holiday.
So sad, So sad,,,,,,,
Read chronicles of events before the shooting;;;; courtesy BBC

14 December 2012 morning

The suspect's mother Nancy Lanza is believed to be the first killed, just before the rampage at the school

The suspect, widely reported to be 20-year-old Adam Lanza, shot and killed his mother Nancy Lanza at their home in Yogananda Street in Newtown, an affluent town of 27,000 people about 60 miles northeast of New York City.

It is still not clear why Lanza killed his mother, who had divorced Lanza's father Peter in 2009.

A parent told AP that Nancy Lanza was a substitute teacher at Sandy Hook Elementary School, but this is not confirmed. A search of Connecticut's educator certification system revealed no-one by that name, and school employees have said Mrs Lanza did not work there.

Journey to school

After killing his mother, Lanza drove her car to the school, which has about 700 pupils aged between 5 and 10.

He was armed with at least three weapons and dressed in black fatigues.

It is unclear what sort of weapons the gunman carried with him and whether any were left in his car.

Entry into school

Visitors to the school have to be buzzed in by a member of staff. But at about 09:30, Lanza forced his way into the school, police now say, contrary to earlier reports that he had been let in.

Shooting begins

Children hid in classrooms during the shooting

Newtown police were notified of shooting at the school over their radios at 09:36.

"Caller is indicating she thinks someone's shooting in the building," a police dispatcher said.

A school employee ran through the halls, warning of a gunman on the loose, and someone switched on the intercom, alerting people in the building to the attack by letting them hear the mayhem in the school office, a teacher told AP.

One young survivor said the gunshots sounded like pots and pans falling to the floor.

Teachers locked their doors and ordered children to huddle in a corner or hide in cupboards as shots echoed through the building.

The victims were all shot by a high-powered rifle, medical examiner H Wayne Carver said on Saturday.

The seven dead children he personally examined had been shot between three and 11 times each, and two of those were shot at close range.

"The bullets are designed in such a fashion that the energy is deposited in the tissue and so the bullet stays in," Dr Carver told reporters.

"This is a very devastating set of injuries."

Abrupt end

The authorities say the shooting only lasted a few minutes and took place in two rooms.

"The shooting appears to have stopped," the police dispatcher radioed at 09:38, according to the New York Post. "There is silence at this time. The school is in lockdown."

The police respond

The shooting has shocked the town of 27,000

Fearful the gunman could still be at large, police swarmed into the building, breaking windows to enter at several points, Lt Paul Vance of the Connecticut state police said. Meanwhile, other officers searched and secured the woods surrounding the school, police said in a statement.

Inside the building officers encountered a horrific scene: 18 children and six adults shot dead, including popular principal Dawn Hochsprung, 47. Two more children would later die from their wounds.

The officers went from room to room removing surviving children and staff from classrooms.

A library clerk who had ordered 18 children into a storage room before locking and barricading the door gave the children paper and crayons to keep them occupied. The police arrived at the door within an hour, the clerk, Maryann Jacob, told the Associated Press.

"One of them slid his badge under the door, and they called and said, `It's OK, it's the police,"' she said.

The schoolchildren were escorted hand-in-hand and were told the shut their eyes as they passed the principal's office, believed to be the scene of much of the carnage.

They were taken to Sandy Hook fire station, where worried parents began to gather.

Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy went to the fire station.

"Evil visited this community today and it's too early to speak of recovery," he said later.

"But each parent, each sibling, each member of the family has to understand that Connecticut - we're all in this together. We'll do whatever we can to overcome this event".

The suspect

The police, who did not fire their weapons during the search, found the body of Lanza, who appears to have killed himself.

More details about Lanza have begun to emerge, but there is still no clear motive for the rampage. AP reported that during the shooting, he did not utter a single word.

After tentatively identifying Lanza, police rushed to the house on Yogananda Street, where they found his deceased mother.

Profile: Adam Lanza, friendless gunman

The bodies

Medical examiners arrived about two hours after the scene had been secured, Dr Carver said.

They began taking photographs of the slain children and adults in a temporary facility similar to a military field hospital set up by the school, he said. By 01:00 on Saturday the bodies had been transported to the medical examiner's office in Farmington, Connecticut.

On Saturday morning they began post-mortem examinations, and by the evening had completed autopsies on all but the gunman and his mother had been completed.

Relatives of the victims were shown photographs of the deceased to help in identification - they did not view the bodies, Dr Carver said.

"We felt it would be best to do it this way," he said. "You can control the situation."

Media confusion

Initial reports about a shooting at the school identified Ryan Lanza, Adam Lanza's older brother, as the gunman after he was mistakenly identified by a police official.

Ryan Lanza, 24, apparently posted Facebook updates on Friday afternoon that read, "It wasn't me" and "I was at work".

In northern New Jersey, where Ryan Lanza works at an accounting firm, police took him into custody for questioning.

A construction worker who witnessed Ryan Lanza's initial encounter with police said he was handcuffed but remained calm, the Record newspaper reported.

He was said to be co-operating with investigators, was not suspected of having a role in the attack, and had not been placed under arrest.