FBI: Sandy Hook shooter may have been pedophile
HARTFORD, Conn. — There was evidence the Newtown school shooter had an interest in children that could be categorized as pedophilia, but there was no proof he acted on it, according to FBI documents released Tuesday.
The records were among more than 1,500 pages of documents released by the FBI in connection with its investigation of the December 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, where Adam Lanza killed 20 first-graders and six educators before killing himself as police arrived.
The records also say there was evidence Lanza began contemplating the attack as early as March 2011.
“The shooter did not ‘snap,’ but instead engaged in careful, methodical planning and preparation,” the FBI’s behavioral analysis unit wrote. “The shooter was fascinated with past shootings and researched them thoroughly. The shooter shared many similar characteristics and behaviors with other active shooters.”
The behavioral analysis unit document did not say what evidence there was that Lanza had a pedophilic interest in children. But another document says an unidentified woman told the FBI that Lanza said adultchild sexual relationships could be “possibly beneficial to both parties.”
She also told the FBI that Lanza compiled a spreadsheet that meticulously documented hundreds of mass murders and spree killings, but she didn’t believe he would carry out a mass killing. She said Lanza believed mass murders were a symptom of a broken society and may have believed he was “saving” children from the “harmful influences” of adults during the school shooting.