Lanza Shot His Mom Multiple Times, Himself as Help Arrived

The gunman in the Connecticut shooting rampage shot his mother multiple times in the head before going to the school and gunning down 26, and he committed suicide as first responders closed in, authorities said today, raising the specter that Adam Lanza had planned an even more gruesome massacre and was stopped short. "We surmise that it was during the second classroom episode that he heard responders coming and apparently at that, decided to take his own life," Conn. Gov. Dannel Malloy said.

Malloy offered no possible motive for the shooting and a law enforcement official has said police have found no letters or diaries left behind that could shed light on it. Lanza shot his mother, Nancy Lanza, to death at the home they shared Friday, then drove to Sandy Hook Elementary School in her car with at least three of her guns, forced his way in by breaking a window and opened fire, authorities said. Within minutes, he killed the children, six adults and himself. (More Dan Malloy stories.)