At least 24 people were killed, including at least 17 children, when a gunman opened fire in a Connecticut elementary school Friday morning, a law enforcement official said. The alleged gunman, a 20-year-old male, was later found dead at the school.
The incident sent crying children spilling into the school parking lot as frightened parents waited for word on their loved ones.
“I was in the gym and I heard a loud, like seven loud booms, and the gym teachers told us to go in the corner, so we all huddled,” one student at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown told NBC Connecticut during its live broadcast. “And I kept hearing these booming noises. And we all … started crying.
“All the gym teachers told us to go into the office where no one could find us,” she added. “So then a police officer came in and told us to run outside. So we did and we came in the firehouse and waited for our parents.”
Two 9mm handguns were recovered from the scene, an official told WNBC’s Jonathan Dienst.
Three people were taken to nearby Danbury Hospital, a spokeswoman told NBC Connecticut. She would not elaborate on the ages of the victims or their conditions.
One of those taken to the hospital was a teacher who had been shot in the foot, the Associated Pressreported, citing a dispatcher at the Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps.
The Newtown Bee reported that one child, apparently wounded, was carried from the scene by a police officer.
