Adam Lanza gave "no clear indication" that he planned Sandy Hook killings, report finds
Lanza wrote stories about killer "Granny," saved newspaper reprints about mass murders
The report is "yet another blow" to family of slain teacher, family says
Still-unreleased police file on Lanza will run thousands of pages, spokesman says
(CNN) —
In the years leading up to the December 2012 massacre at Connecticut’s Sandy Hook Elementary School, Adam Lanza went from a merely shy pre-teen to a mentally ill recluse obsessed with school shootings.
But during that long descent, Lanza never gave anyone any indication that he would one day turn a gun on his mother and then storm his onetime grade school with a semiautomatic rifle, killing 20 first-graders and six adults, investigators reported Monday.
And so Connecticut authorities closed the book on the second-deadliest shooting in U.S. history with the motive still a mystery. Lanza shot himself at the end of his 11-minute rampage, and police found no sign that he “voiced or gave any indication to others that he intended to commit such a crime himself,” according to a 44-page summary of the investigation, released Monday.
“The evidence clearly shows that the shooter planned his actions, including the taking of his own life, but there is no clear indication why he did so, or why he targeted Sandy Hook Elementary School,” the report states.
Candles burn next to a lighted tree at a makeshift shrine in Newtown, Connecticut, commemorating the victims of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14, 2012.
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Erica Simmons rings the campus bell at Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia, during a nationwide commemoration December 21, marking a week since the Newtown, Connecticut, mass shooting. Church bells rang out across the country at 9:30 ET Friday to remember those who died in the gun rampage.
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A woman pauses at a streetside memorial during a moment of silence on December 21 in Newtown.
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Connecticut State Police block the road to Sandy Hook Elementary School during a moment of silence on December 21. A week ago, a gunman forced his way into the school and shot and killed 26 people, including 20 children.
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A woman bows her head in Newtown's Sandy Hook village on December 21.
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People observe a moment of silence for the school shooting victims at the Blue Colony Diner in Newtown on December 21.
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Children in Newtown, excluding Sandy Hook Elementary, return to classes on Tuesday, December 18, four days after the shooting at the elementary school.
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U.S. Rep. David Cicilline, D-Rhode Island, holds a news conference with the Brady Campaign to discuss gun violence. In attendance with the Brady Campaign were several survivors of gun violence and family members of victims of gun violence.
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Members of the human rights group Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption light candles showing the names of those killed during the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, during a prayer vigil in front of the U.S. Embassy in Manila, Philippines on December 18.
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Children light candles to pay their respects to the victims of the Newtown, Connecticut, shooting at the main square in Tirana, Albania, on Monday, December 17. The deadly gun rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School has provoked strong reactions from around the world.
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Protesters march on the National Rifle Association's Capitol Hill lobbyist offices in Washington on December 17.
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New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg speaks out for stronger gun control at a press conference at City Hall on December 17. Bloomberg, co-chair of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, was joined by victims and survivors of gun violence.
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Chris Foye, whose son Chris Owens was killed by a stray bullet in 2009, stands with other survivors and family members of gun violence at Bloomberg's press conference on December 17 in New York.
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People pay their respects on December 17 at a makeshift shrine in Newtown to the victims of Friday's elementary school shooting. Funerals began Monday in the Connecticut town.
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Traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange hold a moment of silence on December 17 in honor of the shooting victims.
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Young people mourn at Newtown High School before a memorial service attended by President Obama on Sunday, December 16.
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President Barack Obama waits to speak at an interfaith vigil for the shooting victims from Sandy Hook Elementary School December 16 at Newtown High School.
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Mourners comfort one another December 16 before U.S. President Barack Obama speaks at an interfaith vigil for the shooting victims.
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Two women embrace before the interfaith vigil at Newtown High School on Sunday evening.
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From left: Newtown residents Claire Swanson, Kate Suba, Jaden Albrecht, Simran Chand and New London, Connecticut, residents Rachel Pullen and her son, Landon DeCecco, hold candles at a memorial for victims on Sunday, December 16, in Newtown, Connecticut.
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A young boy walks past Christmas trees set up at a makeshift shrine to the shooting victims in Newtown, Connecticut, on December 16.
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Ty Diaz is kissed by his mother, Yvette, at a memorial down the street from Sandy Hook on December 16.
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Teddy bears, flowers and candles in memory of those killed are left at a memorial down the street from the school on December 16.
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Two teenagers embrace at a makeshift shrine to the victims in Newtown on December 16.
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Nuns pay their respects at a makeshift shrine to the victims on December 16.
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Members of Sisters of Christian Charity go to lay flowers in front of the Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 16 in Newtown.
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A woman receives a hug as she leaves morning service December 16 at Trinity Church in Newtown near the elementary school.
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Parishioners pay their respects to the victims of the elementary school shooting while attending Mass at St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church in Newtown on December 16.
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Police officers honor the victims of the school shooting at the St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church on December 16 in Newtown.
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The Jacksonville Jaguars have a moment of silence in honor of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims before their game against the Miami Dolphins on December 16.
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A parishioner kneels in front of a makeshift memorial at St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church in Newtown on December 16.
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A police officer removes flowers from a busy intersection on December 16 in Newtown. Police said they were afraid the memorial, left for the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, would cause a traffic hazard.
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A woman hugs her daughter on the steps of Trinity Church on December 16 in Newtown.
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Angel wood cutouts for each of the 27 victims are set up on hillside in Newtown on December 16.
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People in Bangalore, India, hold cards and photographs of the slain at a candlelight vigil outside a Catholic church on December 16.
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J.J. Watt of the Houston Texans shows his glove in remembrance of the victims before the start of a game against the Indianapolis Colts on December 16 in Houston.
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Donna Soto, right, mother of Victoria Soto, the first-grade teacher at Sandy Hook Elementary School who was shot and killed while protecting her students, hugs her daughter Karly while mourning their loss at a candlelight memorial at Stratford High School on Saturday, December 15, in Stratford, Connecticut.
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Firefighters kneel to pay their respects at a makeshift memorial near the school in Newtown on Saturday.
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A child lights a candle at a memorial filled with flowers, stuffed toys and candles outside of Saint Rose of Lima Church near Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut on Saturday.
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Candles light up a memorial outside of Saint Rose of Lima Church in Newtown.
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Lucas, Kelly and Michael DaSilva pray and embrace at a makeshift memorial near the school in Newtown.
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People are overcome with emotion Saturday at a makeshift memorial near Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown.
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Residents arrive Saturday to pay tribute to the victims of an elementary school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.
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A couple carry balloons to place at a curbside shrine to in Newtown on Saturday.
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A mother and daughter attend a prayer service at St. John's Episcopal Church in Newtown on Saturday.
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Flowers and signs of sympathy adorn the street leading to Sandy Hook Elementary School.
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Claudia Urbiana and daughter Jocelyne Cardenas, left, hug outside of the entrance to the Sandy Hook school.
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A makeshift memorial with flowers, stuffed toys and candles sit outside Saint Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church in Newtown, Connecticut, on Saturday.
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A man bows his head as he stands at a makeshift memorial, outside Saint Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church in Newtown on Saturday, December 15.
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New Jersey resident Steve Wruble, who was moved to drive out to Connecticut to support local residents, grieves for victims at the entrance to Sandy Hook village in Newtown on Saturday.
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People attend a prayer service in Newtown on Saturday to reflect.
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A mother hugs her children after paying tribute to the victims in Newtown on Saturday, December 15.
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Newtown High School student Trevor Lopez stands outside of a church where residents have come to pray and reflect on Saturday
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Andrea Jaeger places flowers and a candle at a makeshift memorial outside a firehouse near Sandy Hook Elementary School on Saturday.
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The U.S. flag flies at half-staff above the White House on Saturday.
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Ken Kowalsky and his daughter Rebecca, 13, embrace while standing at the end of the road leading to Sandy Hook Elementary School on Saturday.
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A woman puts a flower near crosses planted by Rio de Paz (Rio of Peace), in memory of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting on Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday.
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A woman sits during a service at the Asylum Hill Congregational Church in Hartford, Connecticut on Friday, December 14.
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Fans at the NBA game between the Utah Jazz and the Phoenix Suns participate in a moment of silence for the victims of the Newtown shooting on Friday in Phoenix.
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An overflow crowd listens to a church service held at the St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church in Newtown on December 14.
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People gather for a prayer vigil at St. Rose Church on Friday.
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People gather for a vigil outside the White House in Washington following the Connecticut elementary school shooting on Friday.
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Candles burn as people gather for a vigil outside the White House.
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Hartford, Connecticut, Mayor Padro Segarra speaks emotionally about the students and teachers who died earlier in the day at Sandy Hook Elementary School in nearby Newtown at a candlelight vigil at Bushnell Park in Hartford on Friday.
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Cynthia Alvarez is comforted by her mother, Lilia, as people gather for a prayer vigil at St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church in Newtown.
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People gather for a prayer vigil at St. Rose Church in Newtown.
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People gather for a prayer vigil at St. Rose Church.
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People gather inside the St. Rose Church to remember the shooting victims on Friday
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A woman bows her head during a vigil for the shooting victims at St. Rose Church.
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People gather in the St. Rose Church for a memorial service Friday.
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Women comfort each other during the vigil at St. Rose Church.
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A woman looks on during the vigil at St. Rose Church.
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People hug outside of the Newtown United Methodist Church on Friday, near the site of the shootings at the Sandy Hook school.
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A flag at the U.S. Capitol flies at half-staff after President Barack Obama ordered the action while speaking from the White House. Obama called for "meaningful action" in the wake of the school shooting.
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Julie Henson of San Francisco joins other people outside the White House to participate in a candlelight vigil on Friday.
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Obama wipes tears as he makes a statement in response to the shooting on Friday.
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Washington resident Rachel Perrone, left, and her 5-year-old son, Joe, center, join others outside the White House in a candlelight vigil.
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Faisal Ali, right, of Colorado Springs, Colorado, joins the vigil outside the White House.
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People gather outside the White House to participate in a candlelight vigil.
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Supporters of gun control hold a candlelight vigil for victims of the shooting outside the White House.
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Though he had attended Sandy Hook from first through fifth grades, investigators found no sign the 20-year-old was targeting any student, teacher or other employee at the school.
“In fact, as best as can be determined, the shooter had no prior contact with anyone in the school that day,” the report states.
Lanza “had significant mental health issues that affected his ability to live a normal life and to interact with others,” the report states. “What contribution this made to the shootings, if any, is unknown as those mental health professionals who saw him did not see anything that would have predicted his future behavior.”
The killings in Newtown, about 60 miles outside New York, happened less than five months after a similar bloodbath at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, outside Denver. Those mass slayings triggered a nationwide debate over gun violence, school safety and mental health – a debate that produced some new restrictions on firearms in several states. But it also yielded a backlash against those laws by gun-rights advocates and only limited action on a federal level after a Republican filibuster blocked expanded background checks for gun buyers.
Various witnesses described a fifth-grade Lanza as quiet but bright: “He wouldn’t necessarily engage in conversation, but wouldn’t ignore one,” the report states. He attended parties, enjoyed music and played the saxophone.
But the same year, according to investigators, Lanza produced something called the “Big Book of Granny” – in which a woman armed with a gun in her cane goes on killing sprees with her son, with children sometimes the targets. The story was related to a class project, but apparently never was handed in to the school, the report notes.
“It can’t be a red flag if nobody sees it,” Casey Jordan, a criminologist at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury, told CNN’s Erin Burnett OutFront.
By late middle school, Lanza “did not like noise and confusion and began to have issues when he had to walk to different classes,” the report states. He didn’t want to be in a crowd. He started receiving tutoring and home schooling. By ninth grade, he was “shutting himself in the bedroom and playing video games all day.”
“He was so enormously isolated,” Jordan said. “His mother was not allowed in his room. No one was. So this didn’t happen overnight. This was years of him slowly withdrawing, and we have that history going back to fifth grade, sixth grade.”
As a child, Lanza had seizures and washed his hands excessively. In 2005, he was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, with doctors noting he “lacked empathy” and showed “extreme anxiety and discomfort with changes, noise, and physical contact with others.” In high school, where he took part in a school tech club, Lanza never spoke of violence, but “was also remembered for pulling his sleeves over his hand to touch something,” the report states.
After the shooting, investigators found that Lanza had sorted out the details of school shootings and other mass murders in spreadsheets. Among the clippings he kept was a reprint of a story in The New York Times about a man who shot at schoolchildren in 1891, wounding several with a shotgun. His computer contained two videos depicting gunshot suicides, two pictures of Lanza pointing guns at his own head and movies depicting school shootings.
But while many of his video games were violent, others were not. For months before the killings at Sandy Hook, he would go to a movie theater on weekends to play the dance game “Dance Dance Revolution” for hours, the report recounts.
Lanza lived with his mother, 52-year-old Nancy Lanza, after his parents split up in 2001. Nancy Lanza “took care of all of the shooter’s needs” and “worried about what would happen to the shooter if anything happened to her,” according to the report.
It didn’t sound easy: The shooter was particular about the food that he ate and its arrangement on a plate in relation to other foods on the plate,” the report recounts. “Certain types of dishware could not be used for particular foods. The mother would shop for him and cook to the shooter’s specifications, though sometimes he would cook for himself.”
Nancy Lanza did her son’s laundry every day, but was not allowed into his room – “No one was allowed in his room,” where the windows were covered with black plastic trash bags, the report notes. Adam Lanza “disliked birthdays, Christmas and holidays,” forbidding his mother from putting up a Christmas tree: “The mother explained it by saying that shooter had no emotions or feelings.”
He was not medicated: Lanza “did not drink alcohol, take drugs, prescription or otherwise, and hated the thought of doing any of those things,” investigators found. An autopsy found no sign of drugs in his system at the time of the killings, the report states.
One person described Lanza’s relationship with his mother as “strained,” while another told investigators he didn’t appear to have “an emotional connection to his mother.” But others said Nancy Lanza “was the only person to whom the shooter would talk.”
Lanza’s mother “tried within her limits” to help her son live a normal life, Jordan said, but “we have a society that shames mental illness.”
“The mother was overwhelmed, did not know what to do with him and did allow him to isolate,” Jordan said. “She tried to bring him out with the one activity they had in common, which was going to the shooting range.”
Nancy Lanza grew up with firearms and “thought it was good to learn responsibility for guns,” the report states. Both she and Adam Lanza shot pistols at a local range, where Adam “was described as quiet and polite.” There was a large but undisclosed number of weapons in the home, all of which had been purchased by Nancy Lanza.
On December 14, 2012, the morning after Nancy Lanza had returned from a trip to New Hampshire, her son shot her four times in the head with a .22-caliber rifle. Then it was off to the school where he once had been a relatively happy child, packing four other guns and nearly 500 rounds of ammunition. He fired more than 150 shots from a .223-caliber Bushmaster rifle before turning a 10mm Glock pistol on himself once police arrived, according to the report.
Monday’s report is separate from a much longer evidence file that Connecticut State Police will release at an unspecified date. That cache will be “thousands of pages long,” according to Connecticut State Police spokesman Paul Vance.
The documents will include witness statements, a timeline of events and background on Lanza, and Vance said he believes they will offer a motive. The file is still being reviewed, with witness names and other identifying information being redacted, and there is no scheduled date for its release, Vance said.
But the family of Victoria Soto, a teacher who shielded her students before being shot to death, said Monday’s release is “yet another blow that our family has been dealt.”
A statement from the family said, “While others search for the answer as to why this happened, we search for the how. How can we live without Vicki? How do we celebrate Christmas without Vicki? How do we go on every day missing a piece of our family? Those are the questions we seek the answers for. There is nothing in the report that will answer those for us.”
Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy said the report’s release “will no doubt be difficult” for the relatives of those killed at Sandy Hook.
“But if there is one thing that I believe we must do, it’s that we must honor the lives that were lost by taking steps to protect ourselves from another horror like this,” Malloy said. “I hope that the information in this summary and in the supporting documents that will be released by the State Police takes us closer to that goal.”
Victims’ family members were informed of the report, said Mark Dupuis, a spokesman for Danbury State’s Attorney Stephen Sedensky, whose office conducted the investigation.
“We are sensitive to the needs of the families, and those needs are being addressed,” Dupuis said.
