The perpetrator, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, shot and killed 26 people.
Updated 23 Aug 2026
The perpetrator, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, shot and killed 26 people. Investigators later found her body in her bed, clad in pajamas, with four gunshot wounds to her head. [1]
The Newtown police and Connecticut State Police mobilized local police dog, police tactical units, a bomb squad, and a state police helicopter. EST on December 14, 2012, Lanza shot and killed his mother Nancy, aged 52, with a .22-caliber Savage Mark II rifle at their Newtown home. [2]
5 sourced milestones
Major events in the case, shown in chronological order.
Shortly after 9:35 a.m., armed with his mother's Bushmaster XM15-E2S rifle and ten magazines with 30 rounds each, Lanza shot his way through a glass panel next to the school's locked front entrance doors.
Source: Wikipedia ↗Some of those present heard the initial shots on the school intercom system, which was being used for morning announcements.
Source: Wikipedia ↗Principal Dawn Hochsprung and school psychologist Mary Sherlach were meeting with other faculty members when they heard, but did not recognize the gunshots.
Source: Wikipedia ↗Rousseau, Rachel D'Avino (a behavioral therapist who had been employed for a week at the school to work with a special needs student), and 15 students in Rousseau's class were killed.
Source: Wikipedia ↗Connecticut prosecutors released their report concluding that the gunman acted alone and died by suicide at the school; investigators said the available evidence did not establish a clear motive.
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