Twenty eight people are dead, including the shooter, after a massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Friday in Newtown.
“Evil visited this community today,” Gov. Dannel Malloy said during a Friday evening news conference.
When police went to the elementary school around 9:30 a.m., they encountered a scene officers have referred to only as tragic and horrific.
Adam Lanza, 20, opened fire first at the Sandy Hook Elementary School's office, then in his mother's kindergarten class, authorities told NBC News.
Eighteen students were dead. Two more would die at the hospital. Six adults were also dead.
The shooter himself died as well, and one of his family members was found dead in a Newtown home, NBC has learned.
This is a time to focus on families of the victims, Malloy said. Each parent, sibling and member of the family has to understand that “we are in this together,” he said.
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“This is a terrible time for this community, these families,” he added.
President Barack Obama was emotional as he spoke from the White House of the tragedy of children whose lives were taken -- children who will never grow up to have families of their own.
“I know that there is not a parent in America who does not feel the overwhelming grief that I do,” Obama said.