News
Friday, December 14, 2012
Malloy: ‘Evil Visited This Community Today’
Gov. Dannel Malloy, speaking tonight at Newown’s Treadwell Park near the Sandy Hook Elementary School where an early morning shooting left 28 dead, said that despite the evil that struck the community, “We will get through this.”
Malloy had been in Newtown since shortly after suspected shooter Adam Lanza, 20, opened fire, killing 20 kindergartners and six staff members before turning the gun on himself.
Lanza is also suspected in the shooting death of his mother Nancy Lanza, a kindergarten teacher at the school. There were reports she was found at her home in the Sandy Hook section of Newtown, but police did not immediately confirm this.
“Evil visited this community today,” said Malloy, who likened his reaction to the news to the way he felt on 9/11 when he was mayor of Stamford, losing friends in the attack.
“I never thought in a public career that I would face these kinds of crises,” he said, noting that police officials hope to return the murdered children’s bodies “to their parents and the loved ones to their loved ones as soon as possible.”
The incident at Sandy Hook was the second worst school shooting in the nation’s history, behind the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre that left 32 dead.
Malloy, who was joined at the press conference by U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal and Sen.-elect Chris Murphy, said he was grateful to the people of Newtown, the state, President Obama and from individuals around the world who have offered condolences and support on this “unspeakable and tragic event.”
“We will get though his,” Malloy said. “Our prayers go to these families. “Say a prayer, send a best wish or think of these individuals who have suffered so mightily today.”
Police have reportedly taken into custody a second suspect who was apprehended in the woods near the school and dressed on camouflage. According to reports, he immediately told police, “I didn’t do it.”
Meanwhile, Lanza’s older brother Ryan Lanza has been questioned in Hoboken, N.J.
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Note: WestportNow Publisher Gordon F. Joseloff is also First Selectman of Westport