ST. PAUL — Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton is reacting to a mass shooting at a Connecticut elementary school with a strong expression of outrage and assurances that school safety here is a “paramount concern.”

Dayton issued a statement Friday on a day when a gunman killed more than two dozen people, most of them children. Dayton says schoolchildren, parents and teachers should feel certain that their safety is a top priority.

The Democratic governor calls the shooting a “dastardly, cold-blooded murder” at the hands of a “deranged individual.” He offered condolences on behalf of the state.

Dayton ordered flags in Minnesota lowered to half-staff from Friday until sunset Tuesday.

In 2005, a Minnesota student killed five schoolmates, a teacher and an unarmed guard at a high school on the Red Lake Indian Reservation before taking his own life.