Dan Katz, WSHU morning producer
WUFT's Donna Green-Townsend spoke this afternoon with Dan Katz, morning producer in WSHU in Fairfield County, Ct., and former WUFT producer.
Here are highlights from that conversation, posted in full above.
Newtown is a suburban, upper-middle class community. About 50 miles from New York City... It's a place you wouldn't expect this to happen. Reported to have happened around 9:40 a.m. One man picked up his daughter, and one of her classmates has a younger brother in first grade... His status is unknown. On the motivation: No solid confirmation. Not prepared yet to be able to give exact details. We're hearing that the shooter came from New Jersey and wasn't someone from within the school but was going after someone who worked at the school. Three of the victims are at Danbury Hospital, which is a relatively large one in a city nearby. The state has really tried to get tough on gun violence in high schools in urban areas, Bridgeport, Hartford and New Haven... This is completely different -- an elementary school in a neighborhood like Sandy Hook... It's very difficult to prepare for a situation like this. We were able to get in touch with people who had stories about kindergartners having to run and sprint (from the school).