The principal and another staff member at an elementary school in Connecticut rushed a gunman who had forced his way inside, an act of courage that cost both of them their lives, the school superintendent said on Saturday. The gunman killed 26 people, 20 of them children, in the nation’s second-deadliest school shooting.
The principal, Dawn Hochsprung, 47, of Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, was running at the gunman “in order to protect her students,” when she was shot, Janet Robinson, the superintendent, said. The school psychologist also tried to stop the gunman and was killed, Ms. Robinson told reporters in brief remarks outside the school.
"Teachers were really, really focused on saving their students, " she said.
The chilling details about some of the moments of the carnage in the bucolic community of Newtown came as investigators pressed for information about the gunman, Adam Lanza, 20. A police spokesman, Lt. J. Paul Vance, said investigators had produced “some very good evidence,” but he provided no explanation for a massacre that unfolded with chilling speed as Mr. Lanza opened fire in one classroom and then another, turning a place where children were supposed to be safe — an elementary school with a sign out front that said, “Visitors Welcome” — into a national symbol of heartbreak and horror.
Lieutenant Vance said the victims’ bodies had been taken from the school, Sandy Hook Elementary. He said the one survivor of the massacre, a woman who was shot and wounded at the school, would be “instrumental” in piecing together what had happened. He declined to describe what evidence investigators — who combed through the one-story school on Saturday — had found.
Contradicting earlier reports, Ms. Robinson said that Ms. Lanza had never been a teacher or a substitute teacher at the school, though she did not specifically say whether she had had any other connection to the school.
Officials said the killing spree began early on Friday at the house where Mr. Lanza had lived with his mother, Nancy Lanza. There, he shot her in the face, making her his first victim, the authorities said. Then, leaving her dead after taking three guns that apparently belonged to her, he climbed into her car for the short drive to the school. Two of the guns were semiautomatic pistols; the other was a semiautomatic rifle.
Outfitted in combat gear, Mr. Lanza forced his way into the school, apparently defeating an intercom system that was supposed to keep people out during the day unless someone inside buzzed them in. This contradicted earlier reports that he had been recognized and allowed to enter.
“He was not voluntarily let into the school at all,” Lieutenant Vance said. “He forced his way in.”
The lieutenant said the authorities were “investigating the history of each and every weapon” that Mr. Lanza carried to the scene of the rampage and said that the guns were found in the school, “in proximity” to where Mr. Lanza shot himself to death.
A federal law enforcement official said the three guns recovered at the school — Glock and Sig Sauer pistols and an M4 .223-caliber Carbine — were bought legally by the gunman’s mother and registered in her name. Other weapons were recovered from her home, the official said.
Even before the medical examiner had released the identities of the victims, some were being mourned on the Internet. One was Ana Greene, the 6-year-old daughter of the jazz saxophonist Jimmy Greene, who moved to Newtown in July. Several other jazz musicians express condolences on Facebook, and Mr. Greene posted a response in which he thanked them.
“As much as she’s needed here and missed by her mother, brother and me,” he wrote, “Ana beat us all to paradise.” He added, “I love you, sweetie girl.” (The Ottawa Citizen quoted a family member as saying that Mr. Greene’s son, who also attended the school, was “fine.”)
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