Attention fellow news analysts: You'll need sifter, to extract the truth, along with a push broom and crap-vac to clean the spin-splatters..
New theories and details about what motivated 20-year-old Adam Lanza to carry out one of the nation's worst massacres are being reported in advance of a PBS report on Lanza set to air Tuesday, though Connecticut police have been careful to caution against drawing firm conclusions.
 |
| (Mahala Gaylord/Denver Post) |
By Karen Workman
Digital First Media
Unnamed law enforcement sources cited in a CBS report Monday say Lanza "saw himself as being in direct competition with Anders Breivik, a Norweigan man who killed 77 people in July 2011."
At 10 p.m. Tuesday, PBS' Frontline will air a special report produced in collaboration with Hartford Courant journalists as part of the weeklong "After Newtown" series.
Detectives are also looking into the roles violent video games and Lanza's experiences at the shooting range may have played in the young man's decision to shoot and kill his mother and 26 others at Sandy Hook Elementary on Dec. 14, reports the Courant.
An editor's note on the CBS story includes the response of Connecticut State Police to the report about the Norweigan connection. It reads: "The investigation into the motive for the Newtown shooting has not been completed and therefore any statements about the shooter's intent are mere speculation."
The Norweigan connection
Several news articles about Breivik were found in one of Lanza's bedrooms, according to unnamed law enforcement officials the Courant described as "familiar with the investigation."
"The sources emphasized that an interest in Breivik is just one theory," the Courant report said.
Violent video games and the shooting range
Lanza destroyed the hard drive on his computer before killing his mother and carrying out his attack on the Connecticut elementary school, but he left behind "thousands of dollars worth of graphically violent video games."
"And detectives working the scene of the massacre are exploring whether Adam Lanza might have been emulating the shooting range or a video-game scenario as he moved from room to room at Sandy Hook," reports the Courant.
Diagnosis of Lanza includes additional disorder
Lanza's mother, Nancy, told an adviser of a school club in which her son was involved that in addition to Asperger's, Lanza had also been diagnosed with sensory integration disorder.
Not all in the medical community support the diagnosis. The American Academy of Pediatrics cautioned against using it last year because "these are most likely symptoms of some other disorder such as autism or anxiety."
The Courant reported that the diagnosis "meant he had difficulty coping with loud noises, bright lights, confusion, and change ... He also wouldn't respond appropriately to pain."
More details about the Lanza family
The Courant's report delves into every aspect of the Lanza family's life, including Nancy Lanza's early life on a farm in New Hampshire where the family butchered their own meat.
Lanza's parents divorced in 2009, but the Courant reported that people close to the family say the couple separated in 2001. Adam stopped contacting his father and brother in 2010, the report said.
No comments:
Post a Comment