According to documents released by the FBI, Sandy Hook shooter Adam Lanza “was a pedophile who thought he was saving children by killing them,” Newsweek reports. The documents have also shown that Lanza was in such denial that he suffered from Asperger’s syndrome, that he refused to take medication.
About 1,500 pages of documents released Tuesday show Lanza had planned his attack for more than a year, at least since March 2011, researching other mass shooting and smashing his computer’s hard drive before he killed his mother and then left the gun-filled home he shared with her to kill 20 children and six teachers.
The documents shed light on some of the unknown aspects of the attack, but there is still much about Lanza, his planning and why he chose Sandy Hook that remains unclear – even though it’s been nearly five years since the shooting that devastated the nation and world, Newsweek adds.
Adam’s mother Nancy Lanza volunteered at Sandy Hook school, and one person told the FBI that her son hated the school because he thought she loved the students more than him. However, another witness told FBI agents that Adam Lanza “loved” the school and would pass frequently during his walks around the area, Newsweek writes.
According to the news outlet, the FBI’s behavioral assessment of Lanza’s mental state concluded he “had an interest in children that could be categorized as pedophilia.” The assessment also found that he shared many of of the same characteristics and behaviors with other active shooters.
However, the Bureau said there was no evidence that suggests Lanza ever acted on his interests in children, but the revelation helps pinpoint the reason that he would open fire in an elementary school, Newsweek adds.
A woman who claimed to have communicated with Lanza online, told the FBI he was unhappy with life and wrote frequently on a website dedicated to the mass shooting at Columbine High School, which left 13 innocent people dead in 1999. When agents asked her why Lanza shot children at Sandy Hook, the woman said she thought he was “saving them” and “taking them away from harmful influences.”
Lanza’s computer was found with a broken hard drive, whereas agents tried to recover some information from the device. But the results were not released or were redacted in the FBI documents, Newsweek writes.
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