By REUVEN FENTON
They didn’t stand a chance. All but two of the 26 students and staffers killed in the Sandy Hook school massacre died from “multiple gunshot wounds,” according to death certificates obtained by The Post today.
One student was killed by a single gunshot wound to the head, while another succumbed to a single gunshot wound to the neck, the records state.
But the remaining 18 students and six staffers were all killed in a hail of bullets fired last Dec. 14 by crazed gunman Adam Lanza, himself a former pupil at the elementary school.
Lanza, 20, then killed himself with a single gunshot wound to the head with a Glock 10 mm handgun as cops closed in.
He’d earlier killed his mother, Nancy Lanza, 52, shooting her multiple times in the head with a Savage .22 caliber rifle as she slept in her bed in the family’s Yogananda Street home, her death certificate states.
The records were released today in a belated response to a Freedom of Information request filed by The Post.
Lanza, 20, fired 154 rounds from a Bushmaster military-style assault weapon inside the school, according to search warrant affidavits released earlier.
The terse, one-page death certificates issued by the Chief State Medical Examiner’s Office list the cause of death and manner of death – which was homicide for the victims and suicide for Lanza. They also include information about whether the victims were buried or cremated, and where the burials took place.
Newtown town clerk Debbie Aurelia had defied the state’s FOI law by refusing to release the documents, which had historically been available for public inspection.
But the state’s Freedom of Information Commission sided with The Post, maintaining the documents were public record.
Connecticut lawmakers had also pitched a number of proposed laws seeking to make exceptions in the state FOI laws to block release of information about the mass murder.
But only one passed, banning the release of photos and videos of murder victims.
Two bills that would have blocked the release of the death certificates – pushed by Aurelia and other Newtown officials – never made it to a vote in the Legislature, paving the way for the release of the documents.