First Photos Released Of Victims Of Sandy Hook School Shooting

The first names and photos of victims of the CT elementary school shooting are starting to be released.

Via UK Daily Mail:

Ana Marquez-Greene, seven, was killed when the shooter opened fire on children and teachers at 9.30am on Friday at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Twenty-eight people died in the mass shooting.

The little girl and her older brother had attended Linden Christian School nearby, before moving with their parents to Newtown in July and enrolling at Sandy Hook. Both children were inside the school when the shooting began.

Ana Marquez-Greene’s father is Canadian jazz musician Jimmy Greene. The distraught father told MailOnline today that he couldn’t find the words to express the loss of his daughter Ana.

Another victim has been named as six-year-old Jesse Lewis. His father Neil Heslin told the New York Post that he dropped his son off at school that morning and planned to return in the afternoon to join parents in the holiday tradition of making gingerbread houses.

Grace McDonnell, six, who was also killed, has been described as ‘utterly adorable’ and ‘full of life’. She had blue eyes and hair that was so blonde that friends thought she looked like a ‘little doll’.

In a chilling twist, Lynn McDonnell, 45, a housewife, and Christopher, 49, a business executive, live in a $500,000 detached home in Sandy Hook, Connecticut that is just one street away from where alleged shooter Adam Lanza lived.

Law enforcement sources said today that the bodies of the deceased have all been identified after being removed from the school in the middle of the night.

Over the course of the evening, parents were led into Sandy Brook Elementary school and asked to identify the bodies, sources said.

Further details from the medical examiner were expected later today.

The three teachers murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary School all died heroes trying to save their students from a gunman who they recognized as the son of on of their own kindergarten teachers.

Prrincipal Dawn Hochsprung, 47, school psychologist Mary Sherlach, 56, and 27-year-old Victoria Soto, a first grade teacher, as three of the eight adults found dead on Friday.

Twenty-eight people died in the shooting rampage, including 20 young children between the ages of five and ten, alleged gunman Adam Lanza, who took his own life, and his mother, who was shot before the school massacre.

MailOnline can now reveal that Miss Soto sacrificed herself to save her students – throwing her body in front of the young children.

When Lanza began started firing at the school in suburban Newtown, Connecticut, some teachers dived under tables – but the Mrs Hochsprung and Mrs Sherlach never hesitated.

They ran into the hallway to confront the danger – and were murdered execution-style as a result . The New York Times reports that Mrs Hochsprung buzzed Lanza into the school, bypassing the newly-installed security system – recognizing him as the son of Nancy Lanza, a teacher there.

Little did she know that Adam had already killed his mother at the home they shared nearby. He took three of her guns and used her car to drive to the school.

Former school superintendent John Reed told the Connecticut Post that Mrs Sherlach was warm and cared deeply for her students.

‘If there ever was a person, by qualifications and personality, to work with children, to be a school psychologist, it was Mary,’ he said.

She was married and had two grown daughters in their 20s and enjoyed gardening, reading and the theater, according to her school biography. Mrs Hoschspring was happily married to her second husband and tweeted dozens of pictures of her school.

Another tale of heroism came from an eight-year-old student who said a teacher pulled him from the hallway as bullets rang out.

‘I saw some of the bullets going down the hall that I was right next to and then a teacher pulled me into her classroom,’ the boy told CBS News.

‘It sounded like someone was kicking a door,’ he said of the piercing sound of the gunfire.

His relieved mother agreed, saying that the teacher saved her son’s life.

This is heartbreaking. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the friends and families of the victims…

R.I.P.

AP Images