The 6-year-old Sandy Hook hero: New report reveals Jesse Lewis saved six classmates by telling them to run when Adam Lanza’s gun ran out of bullets but was shot dead for his bravery when the killer reloaded

The 6-year-old Sandy Hook hero: New report reveals Jesse Lewis saved six classmates by telling them to run when Adam Lanza’s gun ran out of bullets but was shot dead for his bravery when the killer reloaded

• Jesse Lewis, 6, courageously shouted for his classmates to run while gunman Adam Lanza was reloading
• Six children ran out the door to safety because of Jesse’s heroism
  
• Eleven children from Jesse’s class survived.  Only one child survived in the classroom next door
• Mother says she is not surprised her son’s last act was to save his friends

By Michael Zennie

Published: 00:52 GMT, 19 October 2013 | Updated: 14:03 GMT, 19 October 2013

A six-year-old boy courageously gave his life during the Newtown school massacre to save six of his classmates, it was revealed today.

Adam Lanza’s gun jammed after he burst into Jesse Lewis’ classroom at Sandy Hook Elementary School and killed teacher Victoria Soto. Jesse saw in a moment that he had an opening.

He shouted to his classmates, who were huddled in the corner, holding hands. Six children fled the classroom and made it to safety.

‘He yelled, “Run!” Adam reloaded and shot him in the head,’ said his mother Scarlett Lewis, who learned details of the events inside the classroom from investigators.

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In all, 11 children from Miss Soto’s class survived. Five other first-graders hid in a closet.

In the classroom next door, led by teacher Lauren Rousseau, only one child was left alive – reportedly after hiding under the bodies of her dead classmates.

The Hartford Courant released the new account of the events in Miss Soto’s classroom on Friday. The story of Jesse’s bravery comes from the young survivors, who told investigators what they witnessed on December 14.

‘When I heard he used his last few seconds on Earth to try to save his friends, I was not surprised,’ she said. ‘I am so incredibly proud of him,’ Ms Lewis told the Associated Press.

The new evidence also suggests that Lanza might have started in Soto’s room. Surviving students from her class say they didn’t hear any gunshots until he started shooting there.

It was initially thought that Lanza started with Ms Rousseau’s class because he killed all but one child in the room.

Lanza, 20, shot his way into the school on December 14 and killed 20 first-grade children and six staffers at the school, in one of the worst school massacres in U.S. history.

He also killed his mother earlier in the day and committed suicide as police arrived at the school building.

A report on the Newtown shooting by investigators is due to be released soon. Investigators have not disclosed a possible motive for the massacre.

It was reported shortly after the shooting that Miss Soto, 27, hid some of her children in a closet and gave her life trying to distract Lanza.

However, little Jesse’s heroism and his role in saving the lives of his classmates had not previously been publicly known.

Lewis has dedicated herself recently to the Jesse Lewis Choose Love Foundation, which promotes ways for communities to ‘choose love over anger, gratitude over entitlement, and forgiveness and compassion over bitterness.’

The foundation was inspired by a message that Jesse had left on their kitchen chalkboard with the words ‘nurturing,’ ‘healing’ and ‘love.’

She told People magazine last December: ‘With Jesse, I have absolutely no regrets. I loved him to pieces, he knew it, and I knew he loved me to pieces. That is a blessing. Jesse was a gift.’