CT - Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings, Newtown, 2012

Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting
FBI
24 October 2017

https://vault.fbi.gov/sandy-hook-elementary-school-shooting

"Four years before Adam Lanza massacred more than two dozen people in Newtown, Conn., in 2012, police officials were warned of his homicidal plans, according to documents released by the F.B.I. this week.

In one entry dated Dec. 26, 2012, 12 days after the shooting, a man said he had been privy to a conversation in which Mr. Lanza said he had an assault weapon and was planning to kill children at Sandy Hook Elementary School and his mother."

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/26/us/adam-lanza-sandy-hook.html?_r=0

Lanza had created a meticulous spreadsheet of previous mass murders.

The files reveal one woman, whose identity was redacted, had an "online relationship" with him for more than two years after meeting him through a website where players adopt the roles of the Columbine shooters, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold.

She never knew Lanza's name or true identity, only speaking under usernames, but described him as "the weirdest person online" who spent almost all of his time researching and discussing mass murders.

The woman said it was clear he was "depressed" and had a cynical and negative view of the world. She told authorities he had expressed some suicidal thoughts, but did not think he was capable of actually killing himself or others...

The woman he spoke to regularly said Lanza had expressed some details about his sexuality, including a notion that he may have been asexual.

She told investigators he had written "at least one lengthy email" to her expressing his views on paedophilia.

In that he expressed his hatred towards it, but she said he had also described adult and child sexual relationships as "possibly beneficial to both parties".
In 2014 the FBI concluded in a behavioural analysis report concluded there was "evidence to suggest the shooter had an interest in children that could be categorised as paedophilia". But they found no evidence that he had acted on any potential sexual feelings toward children...


The online friend said he described feeling "pity" for children because he believed people in authority were "improperly controlling" them.

She said that she suspected Lanza probably thought he was "saving" or "protecting" the children that he killed by "taking them away from harmful influences" including parents and teachers.

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-41749336

angelainwi said:

"Four years before Adam Lanza massacred more than two dozen people in Newtown, Conn., in 2012, police officials were warned of his homicidal plans, according to documents released by the F.B.I. this week.

In one entry dated Dec. 26, 2012, 12 days after the shooting, a man said he had been privy to a conversation in which Mr. Lanza said he had an assault weapon and was planning to kill children at Sandy Hook Elementary School and his mother."

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/26/us/adam-lanza-sandy-hook.html?_r=0

Click to expand...

BBM. Wait. What?

Conspiracy theorist and former FAU professor James Tracy is set to go to court against FAU.

In a case that could set a precedent related to free speech and tenure, a former Florida Atlantic University professor who claimed the Sandy Hook massacre was a hoax will try to convince a jury he was fired because of his views.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/education/fl-james-tracy-trial-advance-20171127-story.html

www.forensicmag.com/news/2017/10/fbi-evidence-shows-newtown-shooter-had-sex-interest-kids

This article is similar to the one Raymonde posted.

The things that stick out to me is Lanza's mentions of sexual orientation and the weird comment on adult-child relations. What I get out of that is maybe he was molested as a child and like the online friend of Lanza's said, she thinks, in his distorted view of the world, he may have thought he was saving the kids from a cruel world. I don't think his mental illness attributed to what happened as much as his social isolation did.

The other thing was this,
"A Newtown resident told the FBI that Nancy Lanza said Adam Lanza once hacked into a government computer system and federal authorities showed up at their door.

Nancy Lanza told the person she had to convince the agents he was just very intelligent and was challenging himself to see if he could hack into a government system. She said agents told her if he was that smart he could get a job with their agency someday."

I found that interesting. I wonder what government system he hacked into. And why the agents left without questioning him further.

Sent from my LG-M153 using Tapatalk

JerseyGirl said:

Conspiracy theorist and former FAU professor James Tracy is set to go to court against FAU.

In a case that could set a precedent related to free speech and tenure, a former Florida Atlantic University professor who claimed the Sandy Hook massacre was a hoax will try to convince a jury he was fired because of his views.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/education/fl-james-tracy-trial-advance-20171127-story.html

Click to expand...

As a follow up...

Professor who says Sandy Hook was a hoax sued the university that fired him. A jury ruled against him.

On Monday, jurors in U.S. District Court in West Palm Beach unanimously rejected James Tracy’s claim that Florida Atlantic University officials violated his constitutional rights when they fired him.

"More than 1,000 pages of documents obtained by the Hartford Courant from the Connecticut State Police, including hundreds of pages of Lanza’s own writings and a spreadsheet detailing the gruesome work of 400 perpetrators of mass violence, bring into sharper focus the dark worldview of a 20-year-old who shot his mother four times as she slept and then killed 20 first-graders and six educators before killing himself at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14, 2012."

Courant exclusive: More than 1,000 pages of documents reveal Sandy Hook shooter Adam Lanza's dark descent into depravity

Interesting article. The analysis of Lanza--his diagnoses and environment--is not surprising. I do hope that the release of the documents can help prevent the development of a similar perpetrator and a similar tragedy.

I was an elementary teacher at the time of the massacre. It was another major turning point for schools, teachers, students and parents in regard to security and constant vigilance. Another loss of childhood innocence, another reason to feel apprehensive about school. I'd observe my students and try to gauge--if fleeing the building was the best bet--which ones would be able to obey directions and follow me out, and which were the two most likely in need of being grasped by the hand and pulled along. I'd also think about the layout of the building and the location of a shooter indeciding whether to flee or lockdown in place. I've often thought about the Sandy Hook students and teachers being shot as they cowered on the floor of their classrooms, and wondered what, if anything, the teachers could have done differently. I've never seen an analysis of that. All I heard, years after Sandy Hook, was that after analyzing school shootings the experts had decided that each individual teacher should assess the particular situation and decide for herself whether to lockdown or flee. My district adopted that policy. So thankful I was never in a situation to have to make that decision.

Eleanor Rigby said:

Interesting article. The analysis of Lanza--his diagnoses and environment--is not surprising. I do hope that the release of the documents can help prevent the development of a similar perpetrator and a similar tragedy.

I was an elementary teacher at the time of the massacre. It was another major turning point for schools, teachers, students and parents in regard to security and constant vigilance. Another loss of childhood innocence, another reason to feel apprehensive about school. I'd observe my students and try to gauge--if fleeing the building was the best bet--which ones would be able to obey directions and follow me out, and which were the two most likely in need of being grasped by the hand and pulled along. I'd also think about the layout of the building and the location of a shooter indeciding whether to flee or lockdown in place. I've often thought about the Sandy Hook students and teachers being shot as they cowered on the floor of their classrooms, and wondered what, if anything, the teachers could have done differently. I've never seen an analysis of that. All I heard, years after Sandy Hook, was that after analyzing school shootings the experts had decided that each individual teacher should assess the particular situation and decide for herself whether to lockdown or flee. My district adopted that policy. So thankful I was never in a situation to have to make that decision.

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"students and teachers being shot as they cowered on the floor of their classrooms".......those teachers were protecting their students. They COVERED them with their bodies, tried to circumvent the shooter by drawing his attention but human bodies are not an adequate match against a Bushmaster Model XM15-E2S .223-caliber semiautomatic rifle and an individual with familiarity in using it. From my nightmarish memory, each victim had multiple GSWs. The retrieval and identification of the decedents was agonizing & painstakingly undertaken by caring OCME staff & LEOs, trying to "hold it together".
God bless today's teachers who have invested, as you did, in evaluating students and the environment AND the positive changes we've ALL made learning from these events.

Research: Sandy Hook's gunman documents may boost study of mass killersResearchers say the detail on Adam Lanza's mental decline could offer insights into the mind of a mass killer

"HARTFORD, Conn. — The disclosure of Adam Lanza's writings and other documents offer little toward understanding why he carried out the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, but researchers say the detail on the gunman's mental decline could offer insights into the mind of a mass killer.

Some relatives of the 20 children and six educators gunned down at the school on Dec. 14, 2012, said they welcomed the release of the long-withheld records, although they wish it had not come the week of the tragedy's sixth anniversary....

Dr. Harold Schwartz, a psychiatrist and member of the Connecticut commission, made public safety and mental health recommendations in the wake of the shooting and reviewed some of the newly released documents, which were provided to him by the newspaper.

"There's no single, startling new revelation in these papers, but there's more building of the general impression of the kind of disturbed life he (Lanza) was living that I think is mostly helpful to psychiatrists, psychologists ... certainly researchers," Schwartz said.

Schwartz said writings near the end of Lanza's life suggest he didn't decide to commit the shooting until shortly before the massacre, when he may have been suffering from the effects of anorexia including possible brain damage. Schwartz and other experts note millions of people cope with the same mental illnesses Lanza had and aren't violent...."

Research: Sandy Hook's gunman documents may boost study of mass killers
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joypath said:

"students and teachers being shot as they cowered on the floor of their classrooms".......those teachers were protecting their students. They COVERED them with their bodies, tried to circumvent the shooter by drawing his attention but human bodies are not an adequate match against a Bushmaster Model XM15-E2S .223-caliber semiautomatic rifle and an individual with familiarity in using it. From my nightmarish memory, each victim had multiple GSWs. The retrieval and identification of the decedents was agonizing & painstakingly undertaken by caring OCME staff & LEOs, trying to "hold it together".
God bless today's teachers who have invested, as you did, in evaluating students and the environment AND the positive changes we've ALL made learning from these events.

Click to expand...

I do remember reading that teachers futilely covered students with their own bodies during the shooting. What I always wondered, but never heard, was how Lanza got into the classrooms. I know he shot through the glass at the front door of the school to gain entry into the building, but I did not see it reported whether classroom doors were unlocked, or whether he shot off the locks. In determining whether to lock down in place or try to flee with a whole group of young children, I think it's important to know how easily a locked classroom door can be breached by a gun, which, I believe, in many cases, has been a rifle. We were never told this in the school district information sessions I attended. It was all about calculating where in the building the gunman was, and how close the class was to an outside exit. We practiced a lot of lock downs, but never flight from the building. I always wondered if there would have been fewer fatalities at Sandy Hook if teachers had fled with their students.

As a retired teacher who practiced six lockdowns a year since Columbine, my resentment is great.

We had a plan for leaving the building.

One time for a drill, we were out on the playground.

To accept this as a normal way of life is as idiotic as Lanza’s writings.

I wish the foiled shooting plots would get more publicity. I think it would help encourage people to pay attention to warning signs and give them motivation to say something.

There is a wiki page which lists a lot of foiled school attacks -
List of unsuccessful attacks related to schools - Wikipedia

There was a case this past week where a teen in Washington state has plead guilty to planning a school shooting and had stockpiled homemade explosives and had bought a rifle. His grandmother found his journal and reported him.

article here: https://www.heraldnet.com/news/everett-teen-with-gun-guilty-of-plotting-school-shooting/

This recent case needs to be added to the wiki page.

New report offers chilling picture of Sandy Hook killer’s troubled mind (with clip)

Dec 14, 2018

"Six years since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, a new report from The Hartford Courant paints a chilling picture of the killer, who who struggled with loneliness, disdain for humanity and multiple psychiatric problems. William Brangham talks with reporter Josh Kovner about whether the new revelations could offer lessons for preventing future violence.

Read the Full Transcript..."

New report offers chilling picture of Sandy Hook killer's troubled mind
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Sandy Hook students get sent home after a bomb threat on the sixth anniversary of the chilling massacre that left 20 first-graders and six educators dead

14 December 2018

"Sandy Hook Elementary School has been evacuated after a bomb threat on the sixth anniversary of the massacre that killed 20 first-graders and six educators

Police in Newtown, Connecticut, said the threat was made at about 9am on Friday and pupils were sent home for the day
Lieutenant Aaron Bahamonde said there is a heightened level of anxiety in the town on the anniversary

The school superintendent decided to cancel remaining classes..."

Sandy Hook school receives threat on shooting anniversary | Daily Mail Online
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They're only using it to make money from writing articles, otherwise they'd just release the whole lot so everyone could read it for themselves. It's ridiculous, they're going to write article after article, then when they've squeezed it for every cent, they'll release the documents in the 'interest of full disclosure'.
I assume there is no way to see the files until they choose to release them?

I-Team: Childhood Documents Reveal Sandy Hook Shooter's Descent Into Depravity (with clip)

Jan 23, 2019

"Mental health experts say the hundreds of documents seized from the childhood home of Adam Lanza, the Sandy Hook school shooter, may provide lessons for parents on how to help children struggling with developmental disorders and anti-social tendencies.

The files, including drawings and writings from Lanza's youth, report cards, and childhood development evaluations, reveal family members and educators struggling to help the future killer cope with autism, obsessive compulsive disorder, and the extreme isolation that ultimately rendered Lanza a frustrated teenage recluse....

After NBC New York filed a records request seeking the same documents, the I-Team shared the files with experts in the field of childhood development and psychotherapy.

Jeremy Veenstra-VanderWeele, M.D., director of child and adolescent psychiatry at Columbia University, said it is important to dispel the myth that Adam Lanza's autism somehow prompted his violence.

"Autism spectrum disorder actually would be expected to decrease the risk of planned or intentional violence," Veenstra-VanderWheel said. "At a certain point, it feels like something opened a door and evil walked in. These are evil acts. They’re not things we can understand from the perspective of mental illness." ...

One of the most disturbing documents released as part of the Adam Lanza childhood file is a detailed spreadsheet he authored with synopses of mass murders committed across the world. The spreadsheet notes how many were killed, what weapon was used, and what became of the killer.



"It’s hard to talk about this without a concept of evil," Veenstra-VanderWeele said...."

Childhood Papers Reveal Adam Lanza's Descent Into Depravity


(Adam Lanza details anorexic thinking/Photo credit: via Connecticut State Police)


(Adam Lanza's "Big Book of Granny" /Photo credit: via Connecticut State Police0


(Adam Lanza's cartoon showing cereal cartoon characters about to hit kids/Photo credit: via Connecticut State Police)


(Adam Lanza's card to his mother on Mother's Day, left, and a Christmas list to Santa, right/Photo credit: via Connecticut State Police)
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