Sandy Hook shooter’s motive unknown
Investigators describe Lanza, 20, as a loner who was obsessed with violence
HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT
A year- long investigation into the Newtown school shooting has provided disturbing insights into the gunman who killed his mother and then massacred 26 other people, but it still has not provided a motive. Prosecutors closed the case onMonday on the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting last December and offered a chilling portrait of 20- year- old Adam Lanza as a loner who was obsessed with violence and bound by ritualistic behaviour. But they were unable to answer the question that everyone has been asking since the tragedy: Why? “The obvious question that remains is: ‘ Why did the shooter murder 27 people, including 20 children?’ Unfortunately, that question may never be answered conclusively,” the report said. To try to figure out the motive, investigators said, they interviewed members of Lanza’s family — his father and brother cooperated fully — along with teachers and others. They said they also tried within the limits of privacy laws to gather information on his medical treatment. They found no evidence he had taken any medication that would have affected his behaviour or explain the bloodbath. Lanza “was under no extreme emotional disturbance for which there was a reasonable explanation or excuse,” the report concluded. It said that in fifth grade, Lanza wrote a book that included tales of children being slaughtered and a son shooting hismother in the head. He was obsessed with mass murders, assembling articles, photos, books, footage and violent video games, including one in which players gun down students in school. He even kept a spreadsheet ranking mass murders. Probe summary The summary released by the lead investigator, State’s Attorney Stephen Sedensky III, describes Lanza as having “significant mental health issues” but sure knowledge of what he was planning: Besides having the spreadsheet, he smashed his computer hard drive and he used earplugs during the shooting. Lanza killed 20 first- graders and six educators with a semiautomatic rifle at the school on December 14. He also shot hismother in the forehead inside their home. He committed suicide with a handgun as police arrived at the school. Sedensky said there was no indication why Lanza chose Sandy Hook Elementary other than that it was close to his home. He attended Sandy Hook from first through fifth grade, but he was never assigned to the classrooms where the shootings took place.