Key findings in newly released Newtown documents
Dec 28, 2013, 7:43 AM
(AP) – Connecticut State Police on Friday released thousands of pages of documents from the investigation into last year’s massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown. Here are some details from the documents, which supplement a summary report that was released earlier:
_ Gunman Adam Lanza’s mother, Nancy, told a friend two weeks before the massacre that her son was becoming increasingly despondent and was put “over the edge” when their house lost power during Hurricane Sandy.
_ Another friend told investigators Nancy Lanza texted him a few days before the shooting to say that Adam had bumped his head and they were “dealing with blood.”
_ A nurse said that she interviewed gunman Adam Lanza four times in 2006 and 2007 and that he had been diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder and was “emotionally paralyzed,” changing his socks 20 times a day.
_ The advanced-practice nurse prescribed an antidepressant/anti-anxiety medication, but mother Nancy Lanza stopped giving it to him after he was unable to raise his arm, which she believed a side effect. The nurse said Adam’s mother failed to schedule follow-up visits.
_ A former teacher said Adam Lanza’s parents were not “up front” with teachers about his mental abilities. The teacher recalled Lanza responding to a creative writing assignment by “obsessing about battles, destruction and war.” The teacher called the level of violence “disturbing.”
_ A man who dated Nancy Lanza in 2011 said she told him in an email that she had scheduled a trip to London the week of the shooting but canceled at the last minute because of “a couple last minute problems on the home front.”
_ Police officers found what appeared to be about 15 bodies, mostly children, piled in a bathroom at Sandy Hook. Police quickly carried them out, looking for signs of life, but there were no survivors among the group.
_ Police were cautious about interviewing the surviving children. Interviews were done only at the request of the parents or the child. If a child didn’t want to talk, the interview was ended immediately. After the interview, the children were given a copy of the children’s book “A Terrible Thing Happened” to help them process what they had seen.
_ Teachers told investigators they heard janitor Rick Thorne confront Adam Lanza and try to get him to leave the school. One teacher, who was hiding in a closet in the math lab, heard Thorne yell, “Put the gun down!” Thorne was not killed.
(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
