Hartford Courant 

January 26, 2013

Adam Lanza's shooting rampage inside Sandy Hook Elementary School lasted roughly six minutes, a Courant review of dispatcher traffic from state police and the Newtown fire and police departments indicates.

In that time, Lanza fired at least 150 rounds, killing 20 first-graders and six adults.

The dispatch tapes indicate the first of two rounds of shots lasted almost two and a half minutes after he entered the building Dec. 14 by shooting his way through the front entrance. 

The first 911 call came into the Newtown police department just before 9:36 a.m., with the dispatcher's alert -- "Sandy Hook School caller indicates she thinks someone is shooting in the building" -- interrupting the normal channel chatter between officers on patrol.

There were several 911 calls made from the school, but Danbury State's Attorney Steven Sedensky has instructed authorities not to release them until the investigation is complete. Sedensky appeared Thursday before the Sandy Hook Advisory Commission and said the investigative report into the shooting will not be finished until at least June. He gave few details of the investigation to the commission and indicated he would not be releasing any information about Lanza's mental health history because of privacy issues. 

The Courant reviewed the dispatch calls made for a two-hour period following that initial 911 call, believed to be from a woman who worked in Principal Dawn Hochsprung's office. Some parts of the dispatch tapes are difficult to decipher, and many of the calls from officers in the school are inaudible.

About 40 seconds after the initial call, the dispatcher tells officers on their way to the school that the "front glass has been broken; they are unsure why." A second 911 call comes about one minute, twenty seconds later. "The individual I have on the phone is continuing to hear what he believes to be gunfire," the dispatcher advises officers.

As officers start arriving at the long driveway leading to the school, the dispatcher puts out a call that the shooting has appeared to stop: "The shooting appears to have stopped. It is silent at this time; the school is in lockdown."

There are references to other people outside the school when the shooting started. One officer says at 9:41:22 that "I've got him proned out," indicating he is arresting someone. Other media reports have indicated this was a man who had a child at the school, and he was headed to that class when the shooting started.

But the shooting was not over for long. About 50 seconds later, another caller indicates they can still hear shooting and that they saw "two shadows running outside past the gym," which is in the rear of the school.

Newtown Police Lt. George Stinko said some people were detained initially as police got to the scene that was rapidly unfolding.

"This is a public school that is not in a closed area, and officers encountered several individuals as they got to this chaotic scene. None of them were involved in the shooting,'' Stinko said. "There was only one shooter, Adam Lanza. He was found dead inside the school of a self-inflicted gunshot wound."

It is unclear why Lanza stopped shooting. He was moving between classrooms from one where he killed teacher Lauren Rousseau, 14 students and aide Rachel Davino, to Victoria Soto's classroom, where he killed Soto, aide Mary Ann Murphy and six students.

The delay also could have been because his Bushmaster rifle jammed. Sources said police found live rounds on the floor in Soto's room, indicating Lanza may have cleared the gun after it jammed.

Six students escaped the massacre by running from Soto's room when Lanza stopped shooting.

The second burst of shooting lasted more than three minutes, until 9:42:18 -- six minutes, 26 seconds after the initial 911 call.

At 9:51, the records indicate police found Lanza's body. Police found his car at 10:05 a.m. when an officer asked a dispatcher to run the license plate 872YEO. The car, a black Honda Civic, belongs to Nancy Lanza, according to Department of Motor Vehicle records. Police later found a shotgun in the trunk.

Students and teachers started coming out of the school at 10:03, even as police officers were still running into the building to do a room-by-room search

While SWAT teams and other officers searched the school, late-arriving officers tried to reunite children with terrified parents at the nearby firehouse. One officer discovered the six students who had escaped Soto's room.

"Be advised I'm with the parent who has the children who were in the classroom during the event, trying to get a count on them now, not in regular ... we have lines with rooms, and they are not with them, so I'm gathering names of students that were in classroom at the time."

At 11:09 the dispatcher reports, "Danbury is reporting a possible vehicle, a purple van with two occupants with a possible ski mask that may be involved in this incident. Exit 8 and Stony Hill heading towards the center."

The van later was determined to have nothing to do with the shootings. A dispatch call just after 11:50 called off the search.