How Much Info. Should be Released About Sandy Hook?

Republican legislators, including one from Naugatuck, are calling for more police disclosure on the investigation into the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.

Meanwhile, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, a Democrat, says he's "bewildered" by the request.

"I must ask: what more could you possibly need to know?" he said in a statement released Thursday.

"We know for a fact that on Dec. 14, a very disturbed young man took a military-style rifle with high-capacity magazines into a school and murdered 20 innocent children and six innocent adults. We know he had access to that weapon and others, although they were registered to someone else."

Still, at the governor's request, Malloy said Chief State's Attorney Kevin Kane has agreed to release additional information and a status on the investigation by Friday, March 29.

The calls for more information have intensified this week after a leak from a purportedly private speech at a police conference in New Orleans made its way into the New York Daily News. The leak disclosed details about the shooter's planning methods from an unidentified source present at a speech by Connecticut State Police Col. Danny Stebbins.

Following the leak, some representatives, including House Republican Leader Larry Cafero, said they weren't satisfied with the information they were getting.

"I believe the state police are now obligated to brief us, given that much of what was exchanged at the New Orleans conference wound up in the press," Cafero said in a statement released Wednesday. "We don’t have the benefit of potentially critical information that was obtained somehow by the media."

Cafero, who represents Norwalk and New Canaan, called for police to brief lawmakers before the Bipartisan Task Force finishes its work. The Task Force is crafting proposals related to gun violence, school safety and mental health in response to the shooting in Newtown.

State Rep. DebraLee Hovey, a Republican who represents part of Newtown, saying she "rejected" state police's explanations about the leak.

"The fact Col. Stebbins chose to share details with a conference before families were notified and before any official findings have been released shows incredibly poor judgment and is unconscionable," she said. 

Hovey is a member of the Task Force who sits on the mental health committee, which will hold a hearing tomorrow in Hartford.

In Naugatuck, State Rep. Rosa Rebimbas, a Republican who represents Naugatuck's 70th District, said she absolutely believes legislators deserve more information before being asked to introduce legislaton to hopefully prevent future tragedies. She sent this email to Patch per our request for her stance on the issue:

I agree with Representative Cafero and other leaders who have asked that the State Police provide any and all information that they have that would not compromise any prosecutorial investigations they maybe pursuing.

Those families who have lost their loved ones, or the countless others who have directly been impacted by this tragedy, deserve to have their questions answered as much as possible.

When I was asked to participate on the bipartisan taskforce, my responsibility was to reach a bipartisan consensus that would address the horrific tragedy that took place on Dec. 14, 2012.  The recent statements from Col. Danny R. Stebbins that have been reported in the press are very relevant to the task that we were given.

My response to the question “. . . what more could you possibly need to know” would be that we need to know everything that we could in order to be assured that we have fulfilled our responsibilities in this short period of time with the limited information that we could have.

We may never be able to pass legislation that would prevent this type of tragedy from happening in the future. We were one of the top five states with the toughest gun laws already on the books. We must closely examine the individuals who are killing people and how they are getting a hold of the tools to do so in order to truly make a difference. I am not sure why there is not an equal amount of focus, press, media, and organizations begging to be one of the top states to address and treat mental illnesses and the like, which is evidently a common factor in these mass shootings. 

Readers: What do you think? How much information should be released?