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As is typically the case in the wake of tragedy, many rumors began to swirl after the 14 December 2012 shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, which left 26 victims dead at that school. We'll try to keep up with some of the more widely-circulated ones below: One of the most prominent items circulated on the Internet was an encomium to Sandy Hook teacher Victoria Soto, who reportedly died protecting her students from the gunman: An account from one of Soto's students who survived the shooting indicated she was indeed killed while attempting to protect her students, some of whom escaped by running out of the classroom after she was shot: Some of the murkiness in details may be due to a confusion of Victoria Soto with Kaitlin Roig, another Sandy Hook teacher who performed a similar heroic act (and survived to tell her tale): Another item was a commentary attributed to actor Morgan Freeman, expressing the opinion that a quest for notoriety was the predominant motivation of those who perpetrate mass shootings: These words didn't originate with Morgan Freeman, as a spokesperson for the actor confirmed: These words were actually written and posted by a Facebook user (who asked not to be identified) just after noon on the day of the Newtown shootings; after his words had spread far and wide as commentary attributed to actor Morgan Freeman, that user wrote of the phenomenon: Another quote related to the shootings was attributed to actor Samuel L. Jackson: These words actually did come from Jackson, as reported by the Los Angeles Times: A couple of items purported to be notes left behind by children who were killed in the shootings, one from a boy named Brian, and one form a girl named Ellie: Many readers have inquired about the correct address for sending sympathy cards to personnel at Sandy Hook Elementary: This is the correct physical address for Sandy Hook Elementary School (Sandy Hook itself is a village within the town of Newtown), although we can't say how receptive the personnel there will be to receiving a flood of sympathy cards or whether they have the space and staff necessary to store and process them all. A better address to use for the sending of condolences might be one that has been established by the USPS specifically for that purpose: Messages of Condolence for NewtownPO Box 3700Newtown, CT 06470 Another entreaty called for students to make and decorate snowflakes to be sent to the building that will house students from Sandy Hook Elementary School: The snowflake project was listed on the web site of the Connecticut PTSA; however, according to the Newtown Bee the response has been so overwhelming that officials have since asked the public to stop sending snowflakes: Another much-circulated item had to do with a shooting at the Clackamas Town Center in Oregon which took place a few days before the tragedy in Newtown: In the referenced 11 December 2012 incident at the Clackamas Town Center, 22-year-old Jacob Tyler Roberts opened fire with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle near the mall's food court, spraying bullets that killed two adults and seriously wounded a teenager. Roberts then walked down a hall, down some steps and shot himself to death. According to an interview he gave with Portland television station KGW, a citizen named Nick Meli was present in the mall that day, carrying a concealed weapon for which he had a permit. When Meli heard Roberts open fire, he pulled his own weapon and trained it on Roberts but did not shoot for fear of hitting a bystander: Whether Meli's self-reported actions prevented additional loss of life that day is a matter of speculation — since Jacob Roberts killed himself at the scene, there's no way of knowing for sure whether his being confronted by an armed citizen might have caused him to break off shooting earlier than he otherwise would have. A similar item of inquiry concerned a 1997 school shooting in Mississippi: In this 1 October 1997 incident, 16-year-old Luke Woodham stabbed his mother to death with a butcher knife in their home, then drove to his high school in Pearl, Mississippi, with a .30-.30 rifle, where he killed two classmates and wounded seven more. Woodham was apprehended in his car by assistant principal Joel Myrick, who confronted him with a .45-caliber pistol he had retrieved from own vehicle. Joel Myrick didn't actually halt the shooting at Pearl High, as Luke Woodham had broken off his attack, exited the school, headed toward the parking lot, and was attempting to leave the school in his car when he was finally stopped by Myrick. The claim that Myrick's actions saved additional lives stems from reports that Woodham was on his way to Pearl Junior High School to continue shooting when Myrick subdued him, but evidence documenting that Woodham had such an intent is not conclusive. Another item had to do with rumors that members of the Westboro Baptist Church were planning on picketing the funerals of Newtown shooting victims: Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) is an Independent Baptist church in Topeka, Kansas, headed by pastor Fred Phelps. WBC is widely known for its anti-homosexual stance, and members of its congregation have drawn much publicity by staging anti-gay protests and picketing at the funerals of military members and celebrities. (At such funerals, WBC members typically portray the deceased's passing as God's punishment for America's tolerance of homosexuality.) Shortly after the Newtown shootings, concern arose that WBC was planning to picket the funerals of the victims of that tragedy due to a Twitter post issued on the morning after the shootings by Shirley Phelps-Roper, a spokesperson for the group, which said that Westboro will picket Sandy Hook Elementary School to sing praise to God for the glory of his work in executing his judgment. It was unclear exactly what and when WBC was planning to picket, although another Twitter post from Margie Phelps suggested that the target of the picketing would be a 16 December 2012 prayer vigil attended by President Obama. (That event came off with no Westboro protesters in sight.) Another item of interest was a widely-circulated blog post titled I Am Adam Lanza's Mother: On the day of the Newtown shootings, Liza Long posted an entry entitled Thinking the Unthinkable on her The Anarchist Soccer Mom blog, about her difficulties in dealing with her own mentally ill 13-year old son due to our society's stigma on mental illness and its broken healthcare system which provides no option other than treating the mentally ill as criminals. Long's blog entry garnered much attention and praise after it was widely circulated on the Internet under the title I Am Adam Lanza's Mother, which soon prompted criticism from Sarah Kendzior, who charged in her own blog entry that Liza Long has written a series of vindictive and cruel posts about her children and was attempting to create a media campaign designed to give her sympathy: Liza Long and Sarah Kendzior later issued a joint statement indicating they had agreed to refrain from publicly criticizing each other for the time being. An Internet posting claimed that Peter Lanza (the father of Newtown shooter Adam Lanza) was, like Robert Holmes (the father of James Eagan Holmes, who has been charged with killing twelve people in an Aurora, Colorado theater in July 2012) was scheduled to testify before a U.S. Senate committee investigating the LIBOR (London Interbank Offered Rate) scandal: However, as noted at TPM, neither of the companies these men reportedly work for (G.E. and FICO) has any obvious connection to the LIBOR scandal, the Senate Banking Committee currently has no hearings scheduled on that issue, and neither man was ever considered as a potential witness in such an investigation: One item told of Craig Pusley, reportedly a Marine Corp Reservist facing punishment for taking up a position standing guard outside Hughson Elementary School near Modesto, California: Pusley stood outside Hughson Elementary School during school hours on 19 December 2012 and then said he was threatened with a punishment of up to a $10,000 fine and five years in prison for wearing fatigues instead of a dress uniform in public. But later news accounts reported he would not face punishment because, contrary to his claims, he was neither a sergeant nor a member of Marine Corps Reserve: A widely circulated video purported to show many contradictions in facts surrounding the Sandy Hook shootings which established that the incident was a staged hoax is covered in a separate article on this site.
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