(AP) Police say 27 people, including 20 children and the gunman, were killed in the shooting at a Newtown elementary school. Police say another person is dead inside the home of the shooter.



A law enforcement official identified the suspect as Adam Lanza, 20. He is the son of a teacher at the school where the shootings occurred. A second law enforcement official says the boy's mother, Nancy Lanza, is presumed dead.



Police say he blasted his way through the building as young students cowered helplessly in classrooms while their teachers and classmates were shot.



Young students crying and looking frightened were escorted by adults through a parking lot in a line after the shots rang out in Newtown, 60 miles northeast of New York City.



The attack comes less than two weeks before Christmas and appears to be the nation's second-deadliest school shooting, exceeded only by the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007.