Connecticut school massacre

MCB said:
Even if the reasoning is faulty, psychological forensics can study, find out why, and use the information to prevent such events from happening again.
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a very slippery slope to..... Thought Police
 
CrazyPaul said:
News didn't tell why they did.
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the government and police did not classify it as terrorism either. and establishing a motive comes at much later time.

for now - James Eagan Holmes stated to police that he was just being Joker from movie. and Columbine shooters were victims of school bullying which was why they specifically targeted jocks and popular figures.
 
Jiro said:
the government and police did not classify it as terrorism either. and establishing a motive comes at much later time.

for now - James Eagan Holmes stated to police that he was just being Joker from movie. and Columbine shooters were victims of school bullying which was why they specifically targeted jocks and popular figures.
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So the reason for Columbine shooters was revenge and James copycatted Joker, the villian from the movie which means that he has a mental problem.
 
CrazyPaul said:
So the reason for Columbine shooters was revenge and James copycatted Joker, the villian from the movie which means a mental problem.
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there you go. that's why it does not meet the legal definition of terrorism. they're not Osama bin Laden.

1. everybody's got an issue.
2. all shootings occurred at gun-free zones
3. nearly all shooters had a history of mental illness
 
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/15/n...-now-identified-as-a-mass-killer.html?hp&_r=0
He carried a black briefcase to his 10th-grade honors English class, and sat near the door so he could readily slip in and out. When called upon, he was intelligent, but nervous and fidgety, spitting his words out, as if having to speak up were painful.

Pale, tall and scrawny, Adam Lanza walked through high school in Newtown, Conn., with his hands glued to his sides, the pens in the pocket of his short-sleeve, button-down shirts among the few things that his classmates recalled about him.

He did all he could to avoid attention, it seemed.

Until Friday.

The authorities said Mr. Lanza, 20, wearing combat gear, carried out one of the deadliest school shootings in the nation’s history. He killed 20 children and six adults at the elementary school, they said. He then apparently turned his gun on himself. Earlier, the police said, he also killed his mother.

In his brief adulthood, Mr. Lanza had left few footprints, electronic or otherwise. He apparently had no Facebook page, unlike his older brother, Ryan, a Hoboken, N.J., resident who for several hours on Friday was misidentified in news reports as the perpetrator of the massacre.

Adam Lanza did not even appear in his high school yearbook, that of the class of 2010. His spot on the page said, “Camera shy.” Others who graduated that year said they did not believe he had finished school.

Matt Baier, now a junior at the University of Connecticut, and other high school classmates recalled how deeply uncomfortable Mr. Lanza was in social situations.

Several said in separate interviews that it was their understanding that he had a developmental disorder. They said they had been told that the disorder was Asperger’s syndrome, which is considered a high functioning form of autism.

“It’s not like people picked on him for it,” Mr. Baier said. “From what I saw, people just let him be, and that was that.”

Law enforcement officials said Friday that they were closely examining whether Mr. Lanza had such a disorder.

One former classmate who said he was familiar with the disorder described Mr. Lanza as having a “very flat affect,” adding, “If you looked at him, you couldn’t see any emotions going through his head.”

Others said Mr. Lanza’s evident discomfort prompted giggles from those who did not understand him.

“You could tell that he felt so uncomfortable about being put on the spot,” said Olivia DeVivo, also now at the University of Connecticut. “I think that maybe he wasn’t given the right kind of attention or help. I think he went so unnoticed that people didn’t even stop to realize that maybe there’s actually something else going on here — that maybe he needs to be talking or getting some kind of mental help. In high school, no one really takes the time to look and think, ‘Why is he acting this way?’ ”

Ms. DeVivo remembered Mr. Lanza from sixth grade and earlier, talking about aliens and “blowing things up,” but she chalked this up to the typical talk of prepubescent boys.

Still, after hearing of the news on Friday, Ms. DeVivo reconnected with friends from Newtown, and the consensus was stark. “They weren’t surprised,” she said. “They said he always seemed like he was someone who was capable of that because he just didn’t really connect with our high school, and didn’t really connect with our town.”

She added: “I never saw him with anyone. I can’t even think of one person that was associated with him.”

Mr. Baier, who sat next to Mr. Lanza in the back of their sophomore-year honors math class, said Mr. Lanza barely said a word all year, but earned high marks. He said he knew this only from peeking at Mr. Lanza’s scores when their teacher handed back their tests.

Out of view of his classmates, Mr. Lanza’s adolescence seemed to have been turbulent. In 2006, his older brother graduated high school and went to Quinnipiac University in Connecticut, leaving him alone with their parents — whose marriage was apparently coming apart.

In 2008, they divorced after 17 years, court records show. His father, Peter Lanza, a tax executive for General Electric, moved to Stamford, and in January 2011 married a woman who is a librarian at the University of Connecticut.

His mother, Nancy, kept their home in Newtown, a prosperous, hilly enclave of spacious, newer homes about five miles from the elementary school. Adam Lanza was thought to have been living in the house, too.

Friends remembered Ms. Lanza as being very involved in her sons’ lives.

“Their mother was very protective, very hands-on,” said Gina McDade, whose son was a playmate of Ryan Lanza’s and spent much time at his home, which she described as a two-story Colonial with a pool.

“It was a beautiful home,” Ms. McDade said. “She was a good housekeeper, better than me. You could tell her kids really came first.”

Beth Israel, 43, said she and her family lived down the street from the Lanzas, and her daughter went to school with Adam Lanza. She said she had not spoken to any members of the family in three years.

“He was a socially awkward kid,” Ms. Israel said. “He always had issues. He was kind of a loner. I don’t know who his friends were.”

She said she would speak with his mother on occasion, but said the family was not social.

On Friday, police officers and agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation swarmed through the Lanzas’ neighborhood, blocking off streets and asking residents to leave their homes.

Throughout the afternoon, Ms. Lanza’s surviving son, Ryan, was named by some news outlets as the killer.

Ryan Lanza’s identification had been found on the body of his underage brother, leading to the mistaken reports.

Brett Wilshe, a neighbor of Ryan Lanza’s in Hoboken, said he communicated with him by instant message at 1:15 p.m.

“He said he thought his mom was dead, and he was heading back up to Connecticut,” Mr. Wilshe said. “He said, ‘It was my brother.’ ”
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http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/16/n...-school-in-connecticut-28-dead-in-all.html?hp
The principal and another staff member at an elementary school in Connecticut had rushed a gunman who forced his way inside, an act of courage that cost both of them their lives, a school superintendent said on Saturday. In all, the gunman killed 26 people, 20 of them children, in the nation’s second-deadliest school shooting.

The principal, Dawn Hochsprung, 47, of Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, was running at the gunman “in order to protect her students” when she was shot, the superintendent, Janet Robinson, said. The school psychologist also tried to stop the gunman and was killed, Ms. Robinson told reporters in brief remarks outside the school.

“Teachers were really, really focused on saving their students,” she added.

The chilling details about some of the moments during the carnage in the bucolic community emerged as investigators pressed for more information about the gunman, identified as Adam Lanza. A police spokesman, Lt. J. Paul Vance, said investigators had produced “some very good evidence,” but he provided no explanation for a massacre that unfolded with brutal efficiency as Mr. Lanza, 20, opened fire in one classroom and then another, turning a place where children were supposed to be safe — an elementary school with a sign out front that said, “Visitors Welcome” — into a national symbol of heartbreak and horror.

Lieutenant Vance said the victims’ bodies had been taken from the school, Sandy Hook Elementary. He said the one survivor of the massacre, a woman who was shot and wounded at the school, would be “instrumental” in piecing together what had happened. He declined to describe what evidence investigators — who combed through the one-story school on Saturday — had found.

Contradicting earlier reports, Ms. Robinson said Mr. Lanza’s mother, Nancy Lanza, had never been a teacher or a substitute teacher at the school, though she did not specifically say whether she had had any other connection to the place.

Officials said the killing spree began early on Friday at the house where Mr. Lanza had lived with his mother. There, he shot her in the face, making her his first victim, the authorities said. Then, leaving her dead after taking three guns that apparently belonged to her, he climbed into her car for the short drive to the school. Two of the guns were semiautomatic pistols; the other was a semiautomatic rifle.

Outfitted in combat gear, Mr. Lanza forced his way into the school, apparently defeating an intercom system that was supposed to keep people out during the day unless someone inside buzzed them in. This was contrary to earlier reports that he had been recognized and allowed to enter.

“He was not voluntarily let into the school at all,” Lieutenant Vance said. “He forced his way in.”

The lieutenant said the authorities were “investigating the history of each and every weapon” that Mr. Lanza carried to the scene of the rampage and said that the guns were found in the school, “in proximity” to where Mr. Lanza shot himself to death.

A federal law enforcement official said the three guns recovered at the school — Glock and Sig Sauer pistols and an M4 .223-caliber Carbine — were bought legally by the gunman’s mother and registered in her name. Other weapons were recovered from her home, the official said.

Even before the medical examiner released the identities of the victims, some were being mourned on the Internet. One was Ana Greene, the 6-year-old daughter of the jazz saxophonist Jimmy Greene, who moved to Newtown in July. Several other jazz musicians express condolences on Facebook, and Mr. Greene posted a response in which he thanked them.

“As much as she’s needed here and missed by her mother, brother and me,” he wrote, “Ana beat us all to paradise.” He added, “I love you, sweetie girl.” (The Ottawa Citizen quoted a family member as saying that Mr. Greene’s son, who also attended the school, was “fine.”)

Dorothy Werden, 49, lives across the street from Christopher and Lynn McDonnell, who lost their daughter Grace, 6, on Friday. In an interview Saturday morning, she said that several other families who had lost children lived close by, and that the Lanza household was a block away.

Ms. Werden said she saw Grace getting on a bus Friday morning, as she did every day at 8:45. Shortly afterward, she received a call that there had been a lockdown at the school — something that happens periodically, she said, because there is a prison nearby. It was only when she saw police cars from out of town speed past her that she knew something was wrong.

“A lot of my friends in the neighborhood lost their children,” she said. The feeling in the once-quiet streets Saturday morning is “absolute, indescribable devastation,” she added.

“The fact that the killer killed his mom a block away while we were getting our kids ready for school, it’s too much for your brain to process. And the fact that I have to look across the street and see the McDonnells’ house,” she said, before trailing off.

The shooting affected a small community of close-knit families, Ms. Werden added. “The fact that it’s contained in the Sandy Hook area,” she said, “I don’t think we’ll recover from this for a very long time.”

Like the rest of the nation, she said, local residents were asking one question: Why?

“Why did he have to go to the elementary school and kill all of those defenseless children?” Ms. Werden said.

Terrifying new details emerged Saturday about how teachers and school staff members scrambled to move children to safety as the massacre began. Maryann Jacob, a library clerk, said she initially herded students behind a bookcase against a wall “where they can’t be seen.” She said that spot had been chosen in practice drills for school lockdowns, but on Friday, she had to move the pupils to a storage room “because we discovered one of our doors didn’t lock.”

Ms. Jacob said the storage room had crayons and paper that they tore up for the children to color while they waited. “They were asking what was going on,” she said. “We said: ‘We don’t know. Our job is just to be quiet.’” But she said that she did know, because she had called the school office and learned that the unthinkable had happened just steps away.

Law enforcement officials said Mr. Lanza had grown up in Newtown, and he was remembered by high school classmates as smart, introverted and nervous. They said he had gone out of his way not to attract attention when he was younger.

There was still no public explanation of what had motivated Mr. Lanza. Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation interviewed his brother, Ryan Lanza, in Hoboken, N.J. His father, Peter Lanza, who was divorced from his mother, was also questioned, an official said.

President Obama, meanwhile, used his weekly radio and Internet address to mourn the victims, saying that “every parent in America has a heart heavy with hurt.” Republicans, who normally prepare a reply to the president’s address, did not do so this time.

The president’s address was similar to a statement he read in the White House press room on Friday, when he paused, more than once, and wiped his eyes.

“Our hearts are broken today,” Mr. Obama said in his address. He mentioned other places where there had been mass shootings this year, including a mall in Oregon, a Sikh temple in Wisconsin and a movie theater in Colorado, as well as “countless street corners in places like Chicago and Philadelphia.”

“Any of these neighborhoods could be our own,” Mr. Obama said. “So we have to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of the politics.”

Lieutenant Vance said 18 youngsters were pronounced dead at the school, and two others were taken to hospitals, where they were declared dead. All the adults killed at the school were pronounced dead there.

Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were tracing all of the guns registered to Mr. Lanza’s mother and had completed the work on several, the official said, but would not provide additional details.

The agents were also visiting all the licensed federal firearms dealers in the area to determine if they might have records on any other weapons linked to the gunman or to his family, and they were canvassing sporting ranges in an effort to learn whether the gunman might have visited them for recreational use.

On Friday night, thousands of people flocked to local churches, attending candlelight vigils and seeking comfort in community.

“These 20 children were just beautiful, beautiful children,” Msgr. Robert Weiss of St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church told reporters. “These 20 children lit up this community better than all these Christmas lights we have.”
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I'm deeply puzzled. why would mother need these kind of guns? these guns are typically what police officers and federal officers use. and the rifles? what for? :confused:

I really hope she didn't buy these guns for her son because of his obsession.
 
Jiro said:
I'm deeply puzzled. why would mother need these kind of guns? these guns are typically what police officers and federal officers use. and the rifles? what for? :confused:

I really hope she didn't buy these guns for her son because of his obsession.
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I heard that the mother took her sons to the shooting range where all of them enjoyed shooting practices. That means they loved guns.

IMO, it's dangerous to own guns in the house where a boy loves to play violent games on his computer. Possibly Adam loved to play those games since he was a loner.
 
Chevy57 said:
Lets make sure these congressmen and senators and judges are safe and people have to pass through a metal detector. We need to lock these schools up during school hours and no one gets in without permission.
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The CT school was locked. The shooter smashed through the glass to gain entry. A metal detector does NOT stop shooters!
 
CrazyPaul said:
You misunderstood big time! She was thinking that I was being too sensitive. She was not laughing at dead children! I demand that you delete that comment right now and I will delete this afterwards.
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There is no such thing as being too sensitive about 20 small children being shot in cold blood! And I find that shocking your daughter feel this way.
 
Jiro said:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/16/n...-school-in-connecticut-28-dead-in-all.html?hp


I'm deeply puzzled. why would mother need these kind of guns? these guns are typically what police officers and federal officers use. and the rifles? what for? :confused:

I really hope she didn't buy these guns for her son because of his obsession.
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I read that that the guns belong to both parents. I feel there been too much conflicting reports from the news reporters . This is still an ongoing investigation and it take along time to get all the facts together and the mother is dead so we'll never know why she had the guns in the first place . I can't understand why any parents would have any kind of guns in the house when they have mentally ill kid. I agree with why did the mother have 3 guns and why where the bullets kept where the son could find them??
 
Reba said:
The CT school was locked. The shooter smashed through the glass to gain entry. A metal detector does NOT stop shooters!
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Schools will have to start having polices station at all the doors during school hours. And no visitors should be allowed into schools any more and especially family members .
 
whatdidyousay! said:
Schools will have to start having polices station at all the doors during school hours. And no visitors should be allowed into schools any more and especially family members .
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A policeman stationed at each door, all day? Impossible. Besides, a crazed gunman can shoot the cop first (easy to spot and target if he's wearing a uniform), and still get into the building.

Why no visitors? The CT gunman wasn't a visitor.
 
shimo said:
Maybe it will turn out he faked her identity to buy these guns.
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that's....... not really possible. ever heard of a case where a person can buy a gun with fake ID? it's not like a liquor store.
 
Examine other nations/cultures, and find out why there is a disparity behind their homicide rates and ours. Then you can reach some form of conclusion or direction to take.
Irrational (as this person was) citizens are ubiquitous, they are available in every country.

This is taken from Crime and the American Dream. (Book)

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