Police released the names on Saturday of 26 people shot dead in the massacre at a Connecticut elementary school a day earlier, including 20 children ages 6 and 7, in an incident that stands as one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history.
Six adults ages 27 to 56 - all women - were identified by authorities a day after a heavily armed 20-year-old gunman forced his way into the Sandy Hook Elementary School. Among the children, there were eight boys and 12 girls.
The gunman used a long rifle as his primary weapon, the state's chief medical examiner told reporters, adding that "all the wounds that I know of" were caused by a rifle.
Asked to describe the attack, Chief Medical Examiner Dr. H. Wayne Carver II, who oversaw the autopsies of all the victims and conducted many himself, called it "the worst I have seen."
"They were wearing cute kid stuff," he said when asked to describe the children he examined. "They were first graders. It's the kind of stuff you'd send your kids or your grandkids out the door to first grade in."
A total of 28 people died in the rampage, including the gunman. The list of names released did not include the shooter, identified by law enforcement sources as Adam Lanza, or his mother, who Carver confirmed was killed at the nearby crime site authorities had previously disclosed.