Connecticut police to release Newtown massacre documents Friday

BY EDITH HONAN
NEW YORK Thu Dec 26, 2013 8:39pm EST

(Reuters) – Connecticut state police plan to release a trove of documents on Friday tied to their investigation of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School last year that killed 20 children and six adults, the agency said on its website.

The release comes about a month after the state Division of Criminal Justice released a report on the Newtown, Connecticut, massacre concluding that the gunman, Adam Lanza, 20, had acted alone, and that his motive may never be known.

The material to be released online at 3 p.m. EST (2000 GMT) on Friday “runs several thousand pages and has been redacted according to law,” the state police announcement said.

“The release of this document is indicative that this state police criminal investigation is concluded,” it said, adding that the material would include text, photos and emergency 911 calls received by state police on the day of the massacre.

No further information on the documents was immediately available.

The acting superintendent of Newtown public schools, John Reed, sent an email to parents in the school system informing them of the planned release of records and the likelihood of extensive media coverage surrounding them.

“Like you, I have not seen the materials but I suspect for some persons, the contents will be an emotional trigger,” he wrote, suggesting that parents might avail themselves of information from the National Trauma Stress Network.

The December 14, 2012, shooting rampage in Newtown marked one of the deadliest spasms of gun violence in U.S. history. Lanza, who also shot and killed his mother before driving to Sandy Hook and forcing his way into the school he once attended, killed himself after police arrived on the scene.

Twenty first-graders, all aged 6 and 7, and six staff members at the school lost their lives.

The tragedy rocked the suburban town of 27,000 people and sparked a national debate about school violence and access to firearms.

(Reporting By Edith Honan; Editing by Steve Gorman and Bill Trott)

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