Malloy Presses for Release of Sandy Hook Shooting Report

By Patch Editor Jessie Sawyer

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy came to a conference at the Farmington Club Tuesday to announce $16 million more in school security reimbursement funding.

But media questions outside the building after his keynote address heavily focused on the investigative report on the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. Reporters asked when the report would be released, the extent of information it would contain and whether the governor was actively seeking its release. 

When one reporter asked if Malloy thought the release of the report would "better serve" school systems in improving school security, Malloy said, "Yes, I do."

"My statements, you will note, over the last 60 days have changed," Malloy said when pressed further on the issue. "I've repeatedly called on the State's Attorney to set a date and get the report out. This has gone on longer than any of us would have liked and certainly is not representative of how I would have handled the timing of this report. It needs to get out. It needs to get out this week, next week. It needs to get out." 

Staff at the State's Attorney's Office responded to the governor that they are working on the report.

"They have concerns about some of the information that's contained, things like social security numbers and identifiable information that if it became public...so that there's a large number of documents that they're going through to make sure that there would not be any inappropriate release of information," Malloy said. 

Malloy anticipates that type of personal information will be redacted. 

CT News Junkie reported mid-October that State's Attorney Stephen Sedensky III, who is heading the investigation, has exceeded the initial June deadline that was extended to this fall.

Malloy said that the responsibility of a report of this nature falls on the chief state's attorney, who designated the district state's attorney to "charge of this report." He said he expects the report to be one of the most widely-read reports about a crime. 

While the report has not been made public yet, the Hartford Courant reported details of the case in October that were leaked by anonymous sources. 

As investigators, state officials and the media work to piece together what happened, there are also concerns about when the report will be released given the approaching one-year anniversary of the tragedy, on Dec. 14. Malloy said that he has made it clear "from day one" that the report should not come out on the anniversary. 

"I urged folks to get whatever resources necessary to get this done in a timely fashion," Malloy said. "I wish that they had taken more of my advice and I hope that the report comes out momentarily, but I have no reason to believe that it's momentarily."

Malloy said that he doesn't know if he'll get an advanced copy of the report and said that he hasn't seen a draft of the report. He said that he "has not sought to have any special knowledge above what you would have or what any member of the public would have with respect of the report."

"I don't need to have any special knowledge at the moment beyond what I'm currently aware of based on my participation in what happened in Sandy Hook on that day and the days following and I'm anxious for this report to get out to the public and get out to you folks," Malloy said. "That's what I'm anxious about."

Malloy expressed frustration that the report isn't finished yet. 

"So that people understand, they don't work for me," Malloy said. "If they did, this report would be out already."

He also acknowledged that the State Police union has written a letter alleging the agency's leadership engaged in a cover-up and that they were unhappy with how the investigation was handled, but said that State Police disciplinary proceedings would not be in his purview. 

Malloy said he thinks there's "more work to be done" to "bring schools up to snuff," including the need of additional funds. He said he anticipates more funding toward school security in the future.