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Late Dylan with his parents and brother |
A six-year-old British boy was last
night named as one of the victims of the worst school shooting in American
history.
Dylan Hockley, whose family moved to
Connecticut from Hampshire two years ago, was one of 20 children murdered by
‘deeply disturbed’ Adam Lanza in what may have been a revenge attack.
The Mail on Sunday has learned that
Dylan’s parents, Ian and Nicole Hockley, lived almost opposite the house Lanza
shared with his mother Nancy, whom he also killed.
Last night, Dylan’s devastated
grandmother Theresa Moretti told how the family had moved to America for
a better life for Dylan and his eight-year-old brother Jake, who survived
the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
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Dylan |
She said: ‘They chose that town to live in specifically because the school was so good. My daughter told me, “It’s safe and lovely here Mum.”
On Friday I was out buying Christmas
presents for Dylan and his big brother Jake who is eight. I got a garbled
message on my answerphone from my daughter. She was almost incoherent.
‘I called her back and she told me
what had happened. She kept saying “Mum, how do you tell an eight-year-old his
six-year-old brother is dead and not coming back?”
‘Jake was at school that day. He heard the gunfire that killed his brother.
‘The family isn’t doing well. They
have not seen Dylan yet. They are making funeral arrangements and waiting for
his little body to be released to the funeral home.
‘They are in their house. They live
almost opposite the murderer and his mother. Why did he have to shoot 20
innocent babies? They were only six and seven years old.
‘Dylan was a lovely boy. He had dimples and blue eyes and a mischievous grin. He loved playing Wii and they had a trampoline in their garden. He loved garlic bread and his brother. We are shattered and will never be the same.’
‘When I spoke to Nicole, I said: ‘Do
you know him? Did you know the mother?’ She said, ‘No, mum, I saw them but
never spoke to them. I didn’t know them. I didn’t know there was a killer in my
street’
Earlier this year, Mrs Hockley told
how she and her husband Ian had settled in scenic Newtown, an hour’s
drive from New York, because ‘we felt happy and comfortable’.
Originally from Rhode Island, Mrs Hockley spent 18 years in England, marrying her British husband, who works for IBM in New York, in Norwich in 1993. Both Dylan and Jake were born in the UK.
All the child massacre victims were
first-graders, aged six or seven. Seven adults, six women who worked at the
school, plus Lanza’s mother, also died at his hands, before he killed himself.
The day before his killing spree the
20-year-old ‘Goth’ was reported to have visited the school – where he had been
a pupil at least a decade ago – and had an ‘altercation’ with four members of
staff.
Three of those four are now among
the dead. The fourth person was not at the school on Friday when he went on his
rampage and is now being interviewed by police.
However, it was still not clear
yesterday precisely what caused Lanza, a socially awkward loner, to snap,
though detectives said they had found ‘clues’, thought to be emails, at his
mother Nancy’s home, where he lived.
A grey-haired man who was laying
flowers outside the school described the Hockleys as a ‘very nice family’
adding: ‘They fitted in this community perfectly. We were close friends, like
family.
‘We found out last night. They
called us and said just a few words, “Our son is not with us any more”. That’s
how it happened.’
As police released the identities of
all the victims last night, it was confirmed that they were all shot
several times by a semi-automatic rifle.
Medical examiner Wayne Carver, said
he examined seven of the children killed, and two had been shot at close range.
When asked how many bullets were
fired, he said: ‘I’m lucky if I can tell you how many I found.’
Police said they had found ‘very
good evidence’ they hoped would answer questions about the motives of the 20-year-old
gunman, described by those who knew him as brilliant but remote.
Witnesses said Lanza didn’t say a
word during his murderous spree.
And investigators said they found no
note or ‘manifesto’ of the sort they have come to expect after murderous rampages.
Just one person, a woman who worked at the school, was shot and survived – an
unusually small number in a mass shooting – and police lieutenant Paul Vance
said her testimony would be ‘instrumental’ in the case.
A Glock and a Sig Sauer, both pistols, and a .223-calibre Bushmaster rifle were found in the school and a fourth weapon was found outside. It has also emerged that, on Tuesday, Lanza tried to buy an extra rifle to bulk up his arsenal at local sporting goods store, Dicks, where semi-automatic rifles are priced as low as $49.98 (£31).
Inevitably, the question of
America’s liberal gun laws has been raised by the massacre.
The family of the gunman last night
branded his actions ‘incomprehensible’.
James Champion, a police officer in
New Hampshire and brother of Lanza’s mother Nancy, said via a statement: ‘Our
whole family is devastated. Nancy was a wonderful, loving mother.’
dailymail.co.uk
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