we ran down to the firehouse. at pinned down to the ground with handcuffs on, and we thought that was the victim. >> one of the eyewitnesses there, just a little boy describing what he heard and saw during the shooting. i want to go to another affiliate for more. >> my son was in the gym when it happened. he heard the gunshots. it's going to be one of those things when they're trying to understand what happened. when we tell them what happened in detail, it's going to make it much worse. >> did they give you any information? was it an adult? >> i don't know what happened outside of that. i haven't had any information other than what people are speculating. we're gathering around here. >> listening to parents after parents as they tell the tale of what their children had been through that morning after witnessing an unimaginable tragedy in a quaint town. this is newtown, connecticut. we're looking at the parents who are bringing their children home throughout the morning this has been happening and afternoon as well

straight to the firehouse? >> straight to the firehouse. from there, we just -- >> help us around the world understand what you, as a first responder, are going through. >> sadness, anger, guilt in some aspects. >> why guilt? what could you have done? >> exactly. we were having counseling. as a group. >> can i get your first and last name? >> name's jeffrey thomas. >> jeffrey thomas. since high school. what do you make of the preeths, ju wreaths, people you don't know sending you all these wreaths to put up in town. what would you say to the people of portland, oregon? >> thank you. it makes us feel warm to know this is -- it is amazing that people that far away care about us. >> two simple words, thank you. and we have also now learned that the u.s. senate, members of the senate, have observed a moment of silence. want to take a moment here, take a look. >> i now ask that the united states senate observe a moment of silence to honor the victims of the sandy hook elementary school tragedy. >> mr. president -- >> majority leader. >> the foll

and then they were able to whisk them away to the firehouse. and i believe my daughter, from what she tells me, was the first kid to get to the firehouse. >> reporter: that was declan is the father of an 8-year-old girl who survived this horrible event. he's talking to her and his 10-year-old son with so many questions. the saddest thing i have heard is that his kids don't want to go back to school. as family and friends try to come to grips with this tragedy, many are turning to their faith for answers. cnn's anderson cooper asked a local church leader how he helps the people in mourning. >> what can you really say? many of them just said to me, thank you for being here with us. we pray together, we hugged each other there, were a lot of tears. certainly a lot of emotion. and it has not really settled into their lives that their child has been taken from them. i must say for the parents i spoke with today there was a tremendous amount of love for these children. and i know the days ahead are going to be very difficult and we as a community, cer

her mom said when she arrived at the firehouse, alexis was already with her father. >> he had her in his arms. and crying. and so she is just, she goes mom, i'm okay, i'm here. >> reporter: the rampage and evacuation happened in a flash. but we wouldn't know the full scope of the horror for hours. >> the shooter is deceased. deceased in the school. >> reporter: by 10:30, president obama was briefed on the situation and schools throughout the area were on lockdown. police were surrounding a second crime scene, the shooter's mother's home, nearby. at around noon, the horrifying numbers were announced. abc news learned that lanza had killed 27 people. most of them children. at the local hospital, they were bracing for an onslaught, but they only got three patients. two of whom died. >> a number of us imagined what it may have felt like on 9/11. when there were people bracing for scores of injured and they didn't arrive. >> reporter: at the firehouse where students were gathered waiting for their parents, we met another mother whose children go to a nearby school. she told us she was here

>>> that is part of reconfiguration of the firehouse least, currently, the firehouse least extends halfway between illinois street and the firehouse and what we are doing is we are pulling that area and relocating it to the south along the freight rail track and then creating a new fence so that they have their parking and storage area there. >> and so it will be on the other side? right so it will not be as visible to the general public and one of the other thing that we are looking at doing and this is depend on the bulletin is on the west side of third street, at arthur and third or continuation of car going you can enjoy the art on both sides of the street >>> that will be very nice. >> yes and then the other project that is illustrated here on the top and & i apologize it's farrell small its toll lar yeah park which, is compromises because the utilities running under it primarily and you remember in the early early planning face phases of the illinois street bridge they duck taped the creek and it exploded and -- and creek we had to bridge or over it with a 60-inch force main running

the firehouse is key.u may have seen it in a few of our shots, it's where the local authorities are telling the parents to go where they can be reunited with some of the students there. and this is an ongoing process, parents being reunited with students. yet we're waiting on details about the injuries and also the fatalities that we're just learning about. jon: again, it's still developing there. outside danbury, connecticut, a place called newtown, an elementary school, k-4 grades. all of the front office staff as far as we can tell are females. the principal, the vice principal, some of the school leadership, all women. whether that figures into what happened here, we don't yet know. but we're continuing to keep an eye on the situation. we'll get more developing, more details as they develop, try the wring you -- bring you the very wring you -- bring you the very latest just ahead on "happening. now" n. clear, huh? i'm not juice or fancy water. i've gotine grams of protein. that's three times more than

when i got there, all of the children evacuated were in the firehouse. which is close pitch. >> how are the kids holding up? >> it varies. my son seemed to be okay. mom, i'm okay, i'm safe. he gave me a big hug. a lot of children were crying and scared. >> how did he describe what happened? >> he said he heard what sounded like large pans falling, just loud noises. he said his teacher stepped outside the classroom, immediately came back in and locked the door and had them all get into a corner and sit down and just had them start reading quietly. >> how much time went by between that happened and before he was able to get to you? >> i don't know. he isn't able to piece how much time actually passed. he said after a little while, a police officer came and took them out of the building and brought them to the firehouse. >> we know that the principal had installed a system where you have to be buzzed in. >> yes. and it's been that way for the two years we've been here. you had to ring a doorbell and be let in, and the office is right in front of those doors,

when we brought him away from the firehouse, he was very talkative. , who was very quiet. he was very upbeat. i don't think it really, whatever the teacher did, she relaxed them to the point that they were unaware of what was going on, would be my interpretation of his reaction. >> reporter: or how much danger they were in. >> absolutely. >> reporter: she had them hide in their cubbies for as much protection you could have, which is not much in a cub by. >> we realized what she probably did was she told them that the magic board had malfunctioned and that was the reason they needed to read books in their cubbie. she read to them apparently while this was all going on. >> reporter: there are so many stories of the teachers being so heroic and keeping such a cool head when obviously everything wrong is going on around them. people describe the shooting, hear screaming, and their job is to keep a bunch of small children unaware of how bad it really is. they are really true heroes. >> they are superheroes. when we went down to the firehouse to get our chil

>> the sandy hook firehouse. >> how long have you been at the firehouse? >> we're going home at night to sleep but -- >> years? >> since high school. i'm 38. >> did you ever in 1 million years think you'd be experiencing this? >> nobody in this toub would thing that. >> where were you when you heard? >> working. working across town. we saw the helicopters. >> what did you think it was? >> we thought it was one or two. the principal at first and -- we came down the road, it was just all surreal. seeing all the cars, all this. it's tough. >> where did you go once you saw the cars, straight to the firehouse? >> straight to the firehouse. from there, we just -- >> help us around the world understand what you, as a first responder, are going through. >> sadness, anger, guilt in some aspects. >> why guilt? what could you have done? >> exactly. we were having counseling. as a group. >> just finally what do you make of the wreaths, just people you don't know sending you all these wreaths to put up in your town, what would you say to the people of portland, oregon?

at that time, john, they went to the firehouse and as we were covering yesterday, that was really an area where all the children went and mary anne says she was there for the rest of the afternoon. we're going to play some of her story for our viewers, jon, in just a little bit. as you can tell the news conference while we're waiting for that, but new information as well this morning, jon. >> jenna there in newtown, jenna, thanks. we're learning more about the victims and the gunman. 20-year-old adam lanza. police say he shot and killed his mother at their home right there in newtown before driving to the school and unleashing his rage. this is a 2005 photo of the gunman. it is absolutely inexplicable what he has wrought on that tiny community and really on the entire nation and we're hoping to learn more from that news conference that we've been expecting now for the better part of two hours, when this news conference does begin. we'll certainly take you back there live. jenna? >> jon, peter doocy has been on the ground this morning as well and reporting on this story and peter, we'r

just keep in the classroom. >> they removed you. >> they moved them to the firehouse. that's where all the parents and everybody came. >> were all the kids brave like you were? >> some of them were, like, a little scared. but we had to go through it. >> how did you know they were scared? >> everybody was, like, crying and stuff. >> ronald stevens is with us, the executive director of the national school safety center. ronald, we know there are some schools in urban areas, but elsewhere, that have metal detectors at the doorways. are we going to be seeing more of this now? should we see more of this now? >> it's possible we might see more. but even with metal detectors, things happen so quickly, you can think of the situation at red lake, minnesota, where they had officers and metal detectors at the door and yet the shooter still came in. it is one of those tragedies that is just simply unfathomable, and i don't know of any school in america that would be prepared to handle an assault-like incident that we have been hearing about this morning. >> so does that mean we jus

they guided them to the back of the school and they walked over to the firehouse. that's where i caught up with sofia. >> how is sophia now? it must have been a traumatic experience for all the children who survived this. >> i think she is numb right now. she is a pretty bright kid and she has a big support staff at home and we love her very much and she will be fine. we are devastated for the rest of the families. we don't know who was hurt. i do know my close friends's children are okay, but we don't know who the children were. >> i don't know if she can hear me or not, but i wondered if she wanted to say anything about what happened to her today. >> do you want to say anything, honey? are you sure? i think she's too cold now. >> she should probably go home with her mom. it's been a terrifying day for everybody involved. i am so grateful that you were able to see your daughter. obviously your heart must go out to the poor families who have not been able to see their poor children again. >> it's a small community and it's a close-knit school and devastating. i will

at that time they went to the firehouse, as we were covering yesterday. that is an area where all the children went. mary ann said she was there for the rest of the afternoon. we're going to play some of her story for other viewers in a little bit. as you can tell, the news conference -- we're awaiting that. but we have new information as well this morning. >> jenna there in newtown. we're learning more about the victims and the gunman, 20-year-old adam lanza. police say he shot and killed his mother at their home right there in newtown before driving to the school and unleashing his raeupbl. this is a 2005 photo of the gunman. it is absolutely inexplicable what he has wrought on that tiny community and on the entire nation. we are hoping to learn more from that news conference we have been expecting for the better part of two hours. when that news conference does begin, we'll take you back there live. jenna? >> peter doocy has been live covering the story. we're trying to piece together the facts of what happened yesterday. what have you learned so far? >

they were smart to get them out of the building and move them over to the firehouse. you can see that my daughter's teacher was visibly upset as well as many of the children there. she did a very heroic thing and pulled two kids out of the hall way and shoved them in the class and locked the door. the kids are going to suffer from this like everything else. it's a psychological event that will take time for healing. as long as everyone gets the proper help, it's not something you shake off easily and not for little people. we lost a lot of babies today in this town. there a lot of very sad families. as everyone can think, you never think it's going to happen, but basically it happens all over the world at this point. we have to be cognizant of mental health and cog zandt of gun control in my eyes. to take your children to school, you have to worry about someone blowing them all up. it's very, very unfortunate, but unfortunately it's our reality these days. . >> denise, i'm sorry that that reality was visited upon your daughter today and everybody else. i wish you stren

and really the firehouse was a refuge for both children who had run from the school and for parents who came looking for their children. i spoke with a minister here in town yesterday who said he came to this firehouse at about 10:30 yesterday, and the scene was just sobbing. everybody crying and a lot of chaos and everybody wondering what comes next. >> right. >> how do we rebuild. >> and one of the problems here i think now a lot of the people in the community are just getting a chance to come together and sort out what happened. much of yesterday was spent just trying to figure out what had occurred. you know they didn't even have time to respond and react. you were at a candlelight vigil last night which was really the first kind of community gathering after this weren't you? >> it was. and what is important to think about here is that at this candlelight vigil, and they were all over the entire town churches synagogues religious institutions, people came by the hundreds literally overflowing through the church with grief. and to see that and to see it first hand you know that this

children and we are devastated and heartbroken for the poor families who did not have that moment in the firehousef finding their children, and we can't even imagine. our prayers. the entire community is heartbroken. but when i saw those teachers and i locked eyes with each of them separately, when i found the two children, if i could go back, i would -- i would embrace them. because i had no idea what they had gone through. but it was actually handled very well, because i can't imagine the pandemonium that would have been going on in that firehouse, from the parents searching for their children. if anybody there had any idea the level of what had happened yesterday, people just simply didn't know really what was going on. they just knew that their children had been in a dangerous place, and that those that made it to the firehouse were, thank god, safe. >> what are you tell your son, who is a first grader? what will you tell your daughter who is a third grader? do they have i didn't any idea of how scope of how bad it is? >> i think they do. we haven't really let on. we haven't said much. this is

it is the same firehouse where students on friday sought refuge from the killer in their classroom. we saw moving trucks that were taking furniture and artwork from sandy hook over to chalk hill elementary school in nearby monroe. it is where the students of sandy hook are going to go back to school when it is finally time. threes no date left but the idea is to try to make the transition harsh.e of the shell shocked >> the sandy hook school furniture will be moved down so it will be age and height appropriate. the healing and back to normalcy feeling that will hopefully come from it. >>> as per the latest on the investigation authorities revealed yesterday two surviving adults are recovering from gun shot wounds to their lower extremities. we knew they were recovering from gun shot wounds we didn't know where the wounds from. we know they are somewhere in the lower extremities. they are not only recovering but they are talking to authorities giving them the story helping them piece together what happened inside the elementary school on friday. we are hearing more about the shooter

the firehouse in sandy hook was where parents went to find out if tir children were okay. the way they found out was that their children appeared or they didn't, and after a while, some of the children came, some were reunited with their parents there or at the school, and their parents took them home, and others did not. i will live forever wit the sights and sounds of those parents as they emerged from the firehouse. the cries and sobbing, the cries of grief and anguish, the lo on those faces. the murder -- murderer blasted his sayway no the elementary school in sandy hook armed with a bushmaster a return 15, a 10-millimeter gridlock missile and a 9-millimeter and a multiple magazines filled with ten, 15, 30 rounds, hundreds of rounds that he used in an execution-style massacre. wayne carver, who is the state medical examiner for connecticut, has been in that job for more than 30 years. he has seen it all. but he has said he's seen nothing like this ever. 20 small bodies ripped apart, executed, en masse. so there's no question that evil came to newtown, as governor molloy

pleased and everyone we spoke to said they know someone who was not able to pick up their child the at firehouse, it is very sad to report that everyone would was shot by adam lanza at the school near here yesterday, there is only a single survivor and all we know about that single survivor is that it is an adult female. we are expecting to hear more information from the connecticut state police if about three hours. >> thank you so much. the f.b.i. is trying to find answers to the tragedy and they are new questioning the suspect's family including his older brother and his father. the older brother was initially mistaken as the shooter. the killer and the older brother have been estranged if two years. and now, anna is on the phone on the way to new jersey and that is where the older where lived. police searched his home. what can you tell us today? >> good morning. we are here on the scene and it is quiet after 10:00 last night we wanted the copped roll up at the police station that have been wrapped around the build where the alleged shoot are's brother lives with two other people. the street

the volunteer firehouse right down the street from the school where we watched many families holding tearful reunions with their children and also families who weren't so lucky. all day long here at the firehouse where the students were kept safe after the shooting, an urgent parade of parents coming to pick up their children. this is 8-year-old alexis wasik and her mother. >> you were in there? what happened? >> we heard like an ambulance and a police officer come and everybody was a little scared, crying and i felt actually a little sick. thought i was going to throw up. >> were kids crying and screaming? >> yes. kids were crying, not really screaming, but they were all huddling together and felt so sick. >> reporter: her mom said when she arrived at the firehouse, alexis was with her father. >> he had her in his arms and were crying and she just goes, momma, i'm okay, i'm here. >> reporter: another mom whose kids go to a nearby school told us she was putting off picking them up because she didn't want to tell them about the horror here. >> this is the last few hours of their life

and i got to the firehouse. >> we had no idea at that point. we thought, okay the reports are that one or two people may have been injured. >> i walked around the firehouse and i know she's in there maybe she's there. >> i must have done a hundred laps. >> we knew what she was wearing and i would see the ponytail come around the corner and the jacket and her black glittery uggs she had on and i knew i was going to see her. >> there was hope. >> there was hope. >> because children were hiding. >> and around 1:15 they asked us to sit down and said it was a tragic dayin newtown and 20 children were killed. and i case said don't tell me my little girl is gol. >> there was so much pain and confusion when the announcement was made that life was sucked out of everyone in the room. and you know, at this point blearchg i found a state trooper and was like are there any survivors -- blank and i found a state trooper and i was are there any survivors are you standing me my child is gone and he said yes. >> reporter: overcome with grief they returned home.

and i said no, he's not but maybe he is at the firehouse. as well after, i think the children had been accounted for. and i walked down to the firehouse and i lost her. i shy she went went away. later in the day i looked at the casualty list and, and her son was on it. and i want to see this woman and shake her hand and hold her. i want to pray for her. i, i can't imagine, i can't imagine what she experienced. i wish that boy had been sitting on the couch. i wish i could have given her boy but he perished. megyn: i know -- >> for no reason. megyn: you can understand the desperation of those parents once they heard that there were some children who had saved themselves and gotten to safety and wanting to hold onto hope that their own child might have been one of them. i want to end on this, gene. i know you said in the interview you want to see these children again. you know the parents are comforting their friends, the parents of the children who found themselves at your house that day are the lucky ones. they're comforting friend and going t

the nearby firehouse, as the crows fly, it's aerial shots. it's not far away.s become the staging situation where parents have been showing up. i believe that's what we're looking at now. parents have been showing up there and reuniting with their children, taking them home. and as robert said, when he was watching them reunite, the children were quite shaken. they were led away crying and this is going to be a very, very difficult thing to explain to these young children. >> and we did see obviously a lot of that emotion and we saw from the parents as they arrived here just in this shot that we have had up for the last severa embracing as they were arriving there at the scene. robert is there on the scene as is lynn bestoff. they're there right now. >> they're interviewing some of the parent who is can have come to to the scene. let's listen. >> there's signing procedures. i believe the front door is locked during the day, too. i'm curious to see how these people did get into the building. >> any idea at all and anything that people are hearing? >> from what w

she said she saw nothing and they walked along the playground and the baseball field to the firehouse, and that's where i caught up with her as soon as she got to the firehouse. >> well, it's a blessing that she did not have to experience more than she able did, do you expect that over time you'll need to not only give her the love that you have and move forward the best you can, but do you expect that she'll need more from you, having gone through this? >> yeah, i think that once she needs to go back to school, which i think will be in the beginning of the new year, i think she's going to start feeling the effects more. right now, she's -- she's happy because she has her family around her, it's christmas time. but i think when the reality hits and she has to go back there, that's when i think we're going to have to seek counseling. >> jamie: she's eight years old. has she lost any of her friends as a result of this? does she know of any children she was close to or knew that were not as lucky as she is? >> my fear is that the siblings of the children in her class or the children she

we ran down to the firehouse. there was a man pinned down to the ground with handcuffs on and we thought that was the victim. we didn't get a good glance at him because there was a car blocking it. plus we were running really quick. then we got to the firehouse and we sat in our classes and we were all really happy we were all alive. >> by the way, when we intrude these young kids, we do it only with their parents's permission. their parents are there on the scene. we don't talk to the children unless the parents say they want the child to speak out and they are there to watch these interviews. we are very sensitive to young children in these kind of tragedies. obviously a lot of families are feeling the pain right now. we heard earlier from the president of the united states. let's bring in dr. drew pinsky, the host of dr. drew on our sister network, hln. we have been talking about what's going on. these kind of tragic incidents often can be prevented if loved ones, family members and neighbors and friends pay att

the firehouse is where a lot of police have been working out of. the state police, too.ere are 26 triple trees that have been set up. this is another makeshift memorial that late last night in the rain and cold in sandy hook, con. they allowed people to come up this road about a half mile from the center of the village and place the wreaths and the balloons and decorate the christmas trees. they are so poignant. when you saw the ornaments on the trees and the mementos people have brought and they have left. it really tugs at you. it's a reminder of a loss how people peel an intimate connect to the lives of the young, ages 6 and 7. we'll share a bit more that in town with you. we are awaiting this news conference. when it begins we'll hear from paul vance and we'll hear what he has to say. they have been very careful about the information they give out from the very beginning. martha: obviously motive is one of the things people are trying too what their heads around. we are hearing more with adam lanza. his parents divorced. his family moved to in the *. h -- moved tonew

they physically ran the distance between the school and the firehouse for shelter, right? the police were at the school very quickly. they went right in. and the teachers as you described had locked the doors. the police started escorting the kids out. they said, hold hands and close your eyes. and the kids -- >> the police told the children, hold hands and close your eyes. this squares with what one of the children had told the local reporter, they had been asked to avert their eyes as they went past this area. >> they opened their eyes when they got outside, they were hustled over to the firehouse where they were enveloped and taken care of and parents began to arrive. panicked parents. as traumatic and as panicky as this may have been, it was remarkably calm as parents arrived. >> amazing. >> to check, to pick up their children. >> stand by if you will, i just want to make a note we're getting some video being fed in to us live right now. just across town transfer two vigils that have been taking place. dan may do i, the governor, is speaking at one of them. >> in the c

we did hear some reports that some of the firefighters -- there is a firehouse close to the school --e of the firefighters walked out in tears and if it is reducing grown men to tears you can only imagine what the small children went through. many were led out through the school in the immediate aftermath of the shotting by their teachers and by police. they were told to cover their eyes. one can only assume they were told to do that because they were walking around bodies of kids who used to be their classmates. >> back to jonathan when we get more news. we are awaiting a news conference from the governor of connecticut and a statement from president obama in seven minutes. now a woman and her eight-year-old daughter, a student, both join us on the phone. brenda, as a mother, can you tell us about what you have learned. >>caller: well, when i first came home i assumed it was only the principal that was killed. then i found out that 26 people. i talked to some friends and there are children that are unaccounted for and they will not tell the parents where they are. that is all we know

well, we were both there yesterday in the firehouse with the families during that whole process. and it was just indescribable in terms of the grief and the waiting and trying to be present to them and also to many of the folks that emergency services and police officers sxu s and o who were just feeling the loss and the sorrow of the magnitude that was happening. >> rabbi, one moment yesterday when you were in the firehouse with those families that stands out that you'll never forget in your life? >> yes, some images that's when the news came from the governor that the children did not make it and the wailing of the parents and just sort of the groping and trying to reach for something intangible. horrific scene. >> you were there, too? >> i was there, too. it was holy ground and as people have talked to me and asked me about it, i typically tell people it was holy ground and i honor the holiness of that place and space and the people that were there, as best i'm able. it's something you never want to be in a room like that ever again, but in the tragedy, there is this sense of

on the day of the shootings, many distressed families gathered at the firehouse as the enormity of whatnfolded started to dawn. >> impatience is growing. uncertainty is growing. in the and one mother yelled out -- are any of them still alive. that is when they realize that no one was. >> what would the lasting impact of that be? the question is if there is a real sea change in political and public attitudes to some greater gun law restrictions. >> the former congolese rebel leader has been acquitted of war crimes by the international criminal court. judges said prosecutors failed to prove that his troops including child soldiers were responsible for the massacre in the northeast of the democratic republic of congo in 2003. rebels in syria report that they have made fresh gains and stormed an army brigade. this comes amidst a warning of fuel shortages that jeopardize the delivery of aid to people in syria. the iraqi president has been taken to hospital and the prime minister's office is calling it strap. egyptian public prosecutors, offering resignation after just weeks on the job. appoi

. >> let's go to miguel almaguer who's at the sandy hook firehouse. he's been responding to the first responders. good evening, miguel. >> reporter: good evening, chris. the first respoernlds were at the school moments after the 911 call came in. it took them just minutes to make their way into the school. of course, they saw the most horrific things that any human could see. some of the first responders said this was, of course, a difficult tragedy because of the large number of children that were involved in it. of course, many of these first responders knew these children, they had kids who were their

- >> crews tel console families and there were several parents who stayed most of the night at the firehouse. >> parents and students can expect tighter security at schools nationwide including d.c. >> john gonzalez has the latest on the security efforts in prince george's county. >> this is a moment of silence for those families of the sandy hook elementary school students. >> the principal amount is a moment of silence throughout the school while outside even before, the first school bus drop-off students, police of a service set up in the parking lot. >> i just told him to try to be calm even if you see the police. they are trying to make sure it is safe. >> pretty much every school system in the d.c. area is adding extra police patrols and grief counselors. >> we involve ourselves in anti-bullying and pierre meditation. >> each officer goes through at least 20 hours of intense active threat mitigation. they are on alert today and well aware of the paradigm shift since the first high-profile mass shooting at a school at columbine. >> we want to stabilize a situation but we understand our