There have been multiple hoaxes and ample misreporting in the Newtown tragedy as the event unfolded. There is an unfortunate topic we’re going to have to revisit here:
As an intro to this topic, let’s start with the observation that Tuesday’s episode of the Greta van Susteren show had a segment that focused on the early suspicions that the shooter had help. Her guest was none other that Mark Fuhrman and, as one might imagine, the idea was dismissed out of hand.
The reason this topic came up is because a second shooter was part of the initial report by a teacher at the school who said there were two shooters running past the gym. In addition, early CBS News TV reports had an eye witness that describes a man wearing “camo pants” and a dark jacket being taken into custody. The eyewitness said the man looked the parents in the eye and said “I didn’t do it” as he was passing by in handcuffs. The man then told the reporter that “he’s sitting over there in the police car right now” and points off camera, so there appeared to be a pretty unambiguous report of a man in camouflaged pant and a dark jacket that was taken into custody and early CBS news reports of two gunmen at the school. Memory is a complicated thing, especially during mass casualty events. But if a second shooter is reported by a teacher during the shooting and a man is marched past eyewitnesses wearing camo pants and a dark jacket and taken into custody, it’s sort of irresponsible of the media to just forget that this happened and never provide an explanation. It certainly fuels suspicions.
Also, according to this local CT news report the police were trying to determine if the person in custody was just coincidentally trying to enter the building at the same time as the shooter. The local news outlet, VoicesNew.com, looks like it covers that specific CT area for local reporting. The below article is written as if it was written on Friday, Dec 14th, but it has a December 18th publication date. It’s also listed as one of the “top_stories” in the link URL and has a December 19th date in the URL — the date it was accessed by me — so the dates are clearly a bit screwy but this also appears to be a small, local news organization so that’s not to be entirely unexpected given the circumstances (note the comment from December 17th). Regardless, given the CBS new report of the man in “camo pants” in custody (and posted on the Washington Post’s website, so that is pretty irrefutable) this seems like an important aspect of the event to acknowledge and address:
VoicesNews.com
School Shooting
Leaves 27 Dead
in Sandy Hookby Megan Spicer and Jean Dunn
Published:
Tuesday, December 18, 2012 12:29 PM EST
SANDY HOOK — According to the New York Times, 27 people were killed today, including 20 children, Friday, December 14, at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dickinson Drive.Sandy Hook School is an elementary school of more than 450 students, ages approximately 5 through 10, in kindergarten through fourth grade.
Also dead is the shooter, identified as 20-year-old Adam Lanza, who lived with his mother Nancy Lanza in Sandy Hook.
Mr. Lanza also killed his mother in their home.
Connecticut State Police spokesman Lt. Paul Vance termed the incident “a tragic situation with a wide crime scene.”
At a 1:42 p.m. press conference, Lt. Vance said “the situation is secure” and “the public is not in danger.”
He did not confirm the number of deaths, saying only that there were “several fatalities at the scene, both students and staff,” including the school’s principal, Dawn Hochsprung, according to CNN.
Lt. Vance confirmed that just after 9:30 a.m., Newtown Police received a 911 call for an emergency at the elementary school. Newtown Police contacted the Connecticut State Police, requesting assistance.
On- and off-duty troopers responded, along with a large number of first responders from throughout western Connecticut.
Immediately upon arrival, police entered the school and began an active search for the shooter.
“Our main objective was to evacuate the school as quickly and efficiently as possible of any and all students and faculty,” he said.
Once the school was searched, a staging area was set up behind the Sandy Hook Fire Department which is a quarter-mile from the school.
Parents were told to pick up their children from the staging area provided they supply identification.
The scene at the staging area was one of heartbreak. Many parents were on their cell phones.
As they were leaving the staging area, many of the children were wearing their parents’ coats and jackets because they were not allowed to go back into the school to get anything.
Lt. Vance indicated that no additional information on the fatalities will be released “until there is a complete and proper identification.”
“The shooter is deceased inside the building,” he said, noting “a great deal of law enforcement activity in and out of state, covering all bases relating to that individual.”
Many law enforcement agencies are working together to answer questions about what happened, he said.
Early on, state police advised that the shooter, an adult, was dead, with two handguns found at the scene; later reports mentioned a Glock and a rifle. Multiple canine units were brought in to be sure there was not another shooter at large.
It was eventually learned that he had four guns, which were legally owned by his mother.
That search has since been called off.
Officers believe one person fired the shots, but a second person seen leaving the school was taken into custody to determine if he had any role in the shooting or was coincidentally walking into the school when the shooting began.
CNN reported this morning that the principal, vice principal and school psychologist went into a hallway after hearing gunshots. Only the vice principal returned to the room, shot in the foot and crawling, to call 911.
The vice principal said there must have been “100 rounds, at least,” according to a CNN report.
President Barack Obama was first notified of the situation at 10:30 a.m. by his national security advisor and was updated throughout the morning.
According to reports, staff and students heard multiple gunshots over the loud speaker during morning announcements. Teachers immediately locked classroom doors and corralled students in the corners of rooms.
Venesa Bharaliu, 9, told Voices she and some friends were walking to the art room when they heard the gunshots over the intercom.
“We tried to close both doors, but one didn’t lock and then we went into the office and covered ourselves,” Venesa said.
She added that police told the children were to close their eyes and hold hands with the people next to them while they were lead out of the school. Venesa, however, was not holding anyone’s hand and said she saw “police carrying big guns.”
A reverse 911 call advised parents to stay home, near their phones. A second reverse 911 call told them to come to a staging area behind the Sandy Hook Fire Department, where they were reunited with their children.
Tom Kelleher of Sandy Hook was in disbelief that a shooting of this severity could happen in Sandy Hook. His 8‑year-old daughter was safe.
“Not here, not this school,” Mr. Kelleher said. “This is very unusual.”
Therese Lestik of Sandy Hook received the call from the school and then saw what had happened on the news before getting into her car to reach the school and her daughter, Eva, who is in kindergarten, as soon as possible.
“I’m in complete shock, Ms. Lestik said.
School districts in many neighboring towns put schools on lockdown, including Newtown, Monroe, Bethel and Brookfield.
Lockdown at other Newtown schools were lifted at 12:30 p.m.
Three people were taken to Danbury Hospital, where a strong police presence remained outside the emergency department. One of the three people was a teacher who was wounded in the foot.
The emergency department at Danbury Hospital was put on lockdown to control the flow of people, to protect the confidentiality of patients and to allow staff to work uninterrupted.
In a press conference Friday morning, Danbury Hospital President and CEO John Murphy offered his heartfelt sympathy to all affected by the tragedy.
While confirming that three victims have been brought to the hospital, he declined to give specifics.
Dr. Patrick Broderick, chairman of the hospital’s emergency department, said the three were all evaluated and managed by the hospital’s trauma service.
The hospital had been alerted that patients would be transported and teams were on standby and ready to care for patients when they arrived.
...
Given the complicated history of past mass killings and how little information we have available about the CT shootings at this point it would be absurd to rule out the possibility that the shooter had help, especially of the man in “camo pants” just happened to be trying to enter the school at the same time as the shooter. Instead, on the same day of the attack the media and investigators embraced the idea that the shooter no help or influence without ever resolving the undeniable fact that a second person was taken into custody near the area of the mass killing. Recall that the arrest of the shooter’s brother, the one originally identified as the shooter, sort of took over as “the second person in custody” meme as the story unfolded. If there’s any follow up regarding the man in fatigues near the school taken in custody I haven’t been able to find it. If any of this is hoax info that I’m spreading I deeply apologize for that. Unfortunately, given the circumstances and evidence at hand, we have to continue considering the possibility that there was more going on here than the consensus narrative suggests. It’s a consequence of mass media mass amnesia.
Very true, Dave. And a large part of that mass media amnesia, I might add, is how they never seem to mention the possibility of prescription drugs or fringe-right fascist agitprop as at least correlating, if not helping to cause, many of these shootings, whether in Newtown this month, or at Columbine in ’99. Sad thing is, they’ll just go straight to blaming violent video games or mental disorders for it all. They’ve done that for as long as I can remember, and it irks me greatly, because the media heads KNOW that it’s false.
The Chicago Tribune of December 17th had a story that identified Christopher Manfredonia, who was with his wife volunteering at the school which their daughter attended, as being arrested. He apparently was arrested outside the school as a possible suspect in the mass confusion. However, it is not at all clear whether or not if he was the same person that was arrested in the woods. Detaining people even with handcuffs in such a situation is understandable, but eventually hopefully the whole story will come out.
@LarryFW:
See the new post on this topic and note the very recent update at the bottom. This whole story just got A LOT more mysterious.