School shooter's motive unknown
HARTFORD, Conn. — A yearlong 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 Monday on the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting last December. Their report offered a chilling portrait of 20-year-old Adam Lanza as a loner who was obsessed with violence and bound by ritualistic behavior.
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 behavior or explain the bloodbath.
It said that in fifth grade, Lanza wrote a book that included tales of children being slaughtered and a son shooting his mother in the head.
In the years that followed, 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.
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 semi-automatic rifle at the school on Dec. 14. He also shot his mother in the forehead inside their home. He committed suicide with a handgun as police arrived at the school.
Sedensky said there was no clear 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.
The guns he used in the attack had been purchased legally by his mother, who often took her son shooting and, according to the report, had written out a check to buy him a pistol for Christmas. Their house also contained knives, swords, spears and other sharp weapons.
The report said that in 2005, Lanza was diagnosed with Asperger’s disorder — an autism-like condition not associated with violence — and that he lacked empathy for others and behaved strangely.
