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Nancy Lanza was the first to be killed by her son. Investigators found her with four gunshot wounds to her head.
By the end of his life, there were signs that Sandy Hook shooter Adam Lanza had come unhinged.
Now, the grieving families of his victims are blaming mom Nancy Lanza for not stepping in sooner.
A state attorney’s report released earlier this week revealed shocking details about the young man’s life that the families think a responsible parent would not have missed.
Prosecutors say the 20-year-old gunman kept the light out of his room by covering his windows with black garbage bags. He was apparently obsessed with the April 1999 Columbine High School shooting and kept spreadsheets detailing the most famous mass murders. On his computer, he had bookmarked two videos showing suicide by gun and another dramatized video showing children getting shot. Other bookmarks revealed evidence of the thoughts flowing through his mind: he kept tabs on websites about guns, mass murder, ammunition, violent games, politics, and the military.
Even though they lived in the same house, he would only communicate with his mother by email.
Barbara Frey/AP
On Friday, Dec. 14, 2012, Adam Lanza killed 26 people, including 20 children, before taking his own life.
Yet she still failed to restrict his access to her home arsenal of guns, knives and more than 1,600 rounds of ammunition.
“There was obviously a breakdown in terms of the parenting and the structure in that house,” Bill Sherlach, husband of slain school psychologist Mary Sherlach, told CBS.
Nicole Hockley, mother of 6-year-old victim Dylan Hockley, blamed Nancy Lanza for not doing enough for Adam.
“It’s clear that he had mental illness and intervention was not made,” Hockley told CBS. “And there was not responsible gun ownership, either, because there was access to weapons and firearms.”
All of the firearms used in the shooting were legally purchased by Nanzy Lanza, according to the report. She apparently stopped working because she was worried about her son’s condition. He would change his clothes several times a day and demand specific foods served on specific plates. And he wouldn’t let his mother into his bedroom.
Richard Harbus
This is the home that Adam Lanza lived in while growing up in Sandy Hook.
The mom turned out to be his first target. Adam Lanza shot and killed his mom in her bed before driving to his former elementary school and firing 154 shots with a Bushmaster .223-caliber rifle. He killed 20 children and six adults. He then turned the gun on himself. The Dec. 14 massacre took less than 11 minutes.
Hockley is disappointed that New Britain Superior Court Judge Eliot Prescott recently ordered the release of the 911 calls from the shooting. The tapes will be sealed until Dec. 4 to give the state attorney a chance to appeal the decision.
“I worry about our children and families listening to this in the future,” Hockley said.
The investigators determined that the shooter had “significant mental health issues that affected his ability to live a normal life and to interact with others.” The mental health professionals who did interact with him “did not see anything that would have predicted his future behavior,” the report said.
Still, Nelba Marquez-Green, mother of victim Ana Grace Marquez-Green, said that the community should have reached out to Lanza.
OFFICE OF THE STATE’S ATTORNEY JUDICIAL DISTRICT OF DANBURY
Lanza covered his bedroom windows with black plastic bags. His mom was not allowed inside his room.
“This was a young man who didn’t seem to have many connections. It takes a team to raise a child, it takes a community. Where were the rest of the people in his life?” the mom asked.
That’s why Marquez-Green is looking toward the future.
“How can we move forward in a way to increase the level of safety nets around the most fragile children and families who need us? Because I think that’s the more important question than why,” Marquez-Green said.
School districts have tightened security since the shooting. But Congress has yet to pass any major gun control legislation that would make it tougher for the mentally ill to have access to guns.
The Sandy Hook families have launched “Parent Together,” a national campaign that seeks to roll out prevention programs that will help parents focus in on their children’s mental wellness, development, and connectedness to the community.
Investigators were not able to determine a motive for the shootings. But for Marquez-Green, that doesn’t matter.
“Because for me, there is no why that would justify why I can’t have Thanksgiving with my little girl tomorrow,” the mom said. “There is no why for that.”
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