EUA: ATAQUE DEIXA QUASE 30 MORTOS EM ESCOLA

MASSACRE DE NEWTOWN VOLTA A LEVANTAR QUESTÃO
 DA VENDA DE ARMAS NOS EUA

Estados Unidos: Tiroteio em escola primária


É mais um episódio sangrento no historial de massacres em escolas nos Estados Unidos, que desta vez atingiu uma pequena cidade onde ninguém esperava algo assim.
O assassino foi identificado como Ryan Lanza, de 24 anos. Terá morto a própria mãe, professora na escola, e começou depois a disparar sobre as crianças. Antes, terá morto o irmão, no Estado de Nova Jérsia.
À saída da escola, as crianças mostravam-se chocadas, mas com lucidez suficiente para contar aos repórteres o que viveram: “Quando fomos à reunião da manhã, ouvimos tiros, toda a gente se deitou, o professor fechou a porta e fomos todos para um canto”, conta uma menina. Outra criança dá a sua versão: “Estava no ginásio, ouvimos sete detonações. Os professores disseram que fôssemos para o canto, apertámo-nos todos e continuei a ouvir todas aquelas explosões”.
Um pai dá a versão dos adultos: “Corremos, como todos os outros pais, mas percebemos que não conseguíamos chegar à escola. Felizmente, encontrámos o quartel dos bombeiros perto. Mandaram toda a gente, incluindo as crianças, para a porta lateral do quartel”.
Este novo massacre volta a levantar a questão da venda livre de armas, nos Estados Unidos. A repetição deste tipo de episódio faz com que se levantem as vozes que pedem um maior controlo.



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US in shock as primary school shooting kills 30

27 people, including 20 children aged between five and 10, were killed on Friday morning when a gunman, named as Adam Lanza, opened fire at Sandy Hook Elementary School in the US state of Connecticut. Police have confirmed the gunman is dead.

By Yuka ROYER (video)
News Wires (text)
• 27 people have been killed in a shooting attack at a Connecticut primary school.
• 20 children are among the dead at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown.
• The toll is the second highest in a US school shooting after the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting, which left 33 dead.
• The gunman has been identified as 20-year-old Adam Lanza, his 24-year-old brother Ryan Lanza was held for questioning in New Jersey. Early reports had confused the brothers’ names.
• President Obama wiped tears from his eyes as he gave a brief address, saying the nation had been “through this too many times” with recent mass shootings and had to come together to take meaningful action, “regardless of the politics.”
• Lanza killed his mother, a teacher, and opened fire on her class
• Another adult has been found murdered in nearby house

A gunman killed 26 people, including 20 young children, at a U.S. school where his mother worked Friday morning in one of the worst school shootings in the country’s history. Frightened students who were rushed from the building by police were told to close their eyes.
“Our hearts are broken today,” President Barack Obama said, wiping his eyes during brief comments to reporters in one of the most emotional public moments of his presidency. He said the children killed were 5 to 10 years old.
He said the nation had been “through this too many times” with recent mass shootings and has to come together to take meaningful action, “regardless of the politics.” He did not give details, even as the debate over the issue of gun control in America exploded once again.
A law enforcement official said the suspect, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, was dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, and he was the son of a teacher at the school. A second law enforcement official said the mother, Nancy Lanza, was presumed dead.
The first official said Adam Lanza’s older brother, 24-year-old Ryan, was being questioned by police. An earlier report from a law enforcement official mistakenly transposed the brothers’ first names. Both officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record about the developing criminal investigation.





The attack at Sandy Hook Elementary School, just two weeks before Christmas, was the latest of several mass shootings in the U.S. this year, and it approached the deadly scope of the Virginia Tech university massacre in 2007 that left 32 dead.
This time, many victims were young children. Photos from the scene showed students, some of them crying, being escorted by adults through a parking lot in a line, hands on each other’s shoulders. Children told their parents they had heard bangs and, at one point, a scream over the intercom.
State police said 18 children were found dead at the school and two later were declared dead, and six adults were found dead at the scene. They said the shootings occurred in one section of the school but did not give details.
Police said another person was found dead at a second scene, leading to a total death toll of 28. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said someone who lived with the gunman died.
According to the second law enforcement official, the suspect drove to the scene in his mother’s car. Three guns were found - a Glock and a Sig Sauer, both pistols - and a .223-caliber rifle.
The official also said Lanza’s girlfriend and another friend are missing in New Jersey.
Robert Licata said his 6-year-old son was in class when the gunman burst in and shot the teacher.
“That’s when my son grabbed a bunch of his friends and ran out the door,” he said. “He was very brave. He waited for his friends.”
Licata said the shooter didn’t say a word.
The shooting shocked a small, tranquil community in one of the wealthiest counties in the U.S., about 60 miles (96 kilometers) northeast of New York City. The last news items posted before the shooting on the website of the tiny newspaper, The Newtown Bee, lamented cracked headstones at a local cemetery and asked residents to “share 2012 memories.”
Anguished parents came running Friday morning when they heard the news.
Stephen Delgiadice said his 8-year-old daughter heard two big bangs, and teachers told her to get in a corner. His daughter was fine.
“It’s alarming, especially in Newtown, Connecticut, which we always thought was the safest place in America,” he said.
Mergim Bajraliu, 17, heard the gunshots echo from his home and raced to check on his 9-year-old sister at the school. He said his sister, who was fine, heard a scream come over the intercom at one point. He said teachers were shaking and crying as they came out of the building.
“Everyone was just traumatized,” he said.
Richard Wilford said his 7-year-old son, Richie, said he heard a noise that “sounded like what he described as cans falling.”
The boy told him a teacher went out to check on the noise, came back in, locked the door and had the kids huddle up in the corner until police arrived.
“There’s no words,” Wilford said. “It’s sheer terror, a sense of imminent danger, to get to your child and be there to protect him.”
Melissa Makris said her 10-year-old son, Philip, saw what looked like a body under a blanket as he fled the school.
“We have endured too many of these tragedies,” Obama said. He spoke in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room, named in honor of the former White House press secretary who was shot and disabled in the assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan in 1981. Brady and his wife, Sarah, have become activists for gun control measures.
Already this year, a gunman killed 12 people at a Colorado theater, and another gunman killed six people before killing himself at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin.
“If now is not the time to have a serious discussion about gun control and the epidemic of gun violence plaguing our society, I don’t know when is,” one member of Congress, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, said in a statement.
Overseas, there was both shock and sympathy. In a public statement addressed to Obama, French President Francois Hollande said he was “horrified.”
(AP)
How the day's events unfolded:

LIVE: CONNECTICUT SCHOOL SHOOTINGS