104-960: [REDACTED] Look up lanza in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Lanza may refer to: People [ edit ] Surname [ edit ] Adam Lanza (1992–2012), perpetrator of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting Alcides Lanza (born 1929), Canadian composer Andrew Lanza (born 1964), New York State senator Angela Lanza , American singer Beatrice Lanza (born 1982), Italian athlete Cesare Lanza (born 1942), Italian journalist and author Chuck Lanza (born 1964), NFL player Clara Lanza (1858–1939), American author Cosimo Damiano Lanza (born 1962), Italian pianist, harpsichordist and composer Damián Lanza (born 1982), Ecuadorian footballer Francesco "Frank" Lanza (died 1937), first crime boss of
208-415: A .45 Henry rifle, a .30 Enfield rifle, and a .22 Marlin rifle. These were legally owned by Lanza's mother. According to Time , authorities also found a photograph of Lanza holding a gun to his head at his home following his death. According to The New York Times , law enforcement officials commented that Lanza would spend most of his time in his basement doing solitary activities. According to
312-461: A National Rifle Association certificate. The NRA denied that Adam Lanza or Nancy Lanza were members, and reporters noted that the NRA site provides training certificate completion templates for courses offered by NRA Certified Instructors. A gun safe was found in a bedroom and investigators found more than 1,400 rounds of ammunition and other firearms. At home, Lanza had access to three more firearms:
416-409: A firearm . There is no widely accepted definition, and different organizations tracking such incidents use different criteria. Mass shootings are often characterized by the indiscriminate targeting of victims in a non-combat setting, and thus the term generally excludes gang violence , shootouts and warfare . Mass shootings may be done for personal or psychological reasons, but have also been used as
520-487: A motive , for failures in school, career, romance, or life in general. Homicide Studies, Vol 8(1), pp 125–145.</ref> Additionally, or alternately, they could be seeking fame or attention, and at least 16 mass shooters since the Columbine massacre have cited fame or notoriety as a motive. Fame-seekers average more than double the body counts , and many articulate a desire to surpass "past records". There are
624-619: A terrorist tactic. The perpetrator of an ongoing mass shooting may be referred to as an active shooter . In the United States, the country with the most mass shootings, the Investigative Assistance for Violent Crimes Act of 2012 defines " mass killings " as three or more killings in a single incident. In its definition, a Congressional Research Service report from 2013 specifies four or more killings on indiscriminate victims, while excluding violence committed as
728-565: A "score sheet". On March 18, 2013, Lt. Paul Vance of the Connecticut State Police responded that the information from this meeting was "law enforcement sensitive information" and considered the release to be a leak. The March 28 documents also provided details on items found at Lanza's home, including three samurai swords , a newspaper article about the Northern Illinois University shooting , and
832-491: A 2013 article, "those who feel nameless and as though no one will care or remember them when they are gone may feel doing something such as a school shooting will make sure they are remembered and listed in the history books." In a 2019 op-ed for the Los Angeles Times , Jillian Peterson and James Densley of The Violence Project think tank presented a new, hopeful framework to understand mass shootings. Based on
936-400: A bathroom and barricaded the door, telling them to be completely quiet to remain safe. It is believed that Lanza bypassed her classroom, which was the first classroom on the left side of the hallway. Following a lockdown drill weeks earlier, Roig had failed to remove a piece of black construction paper covering the small window in her classroom door. Lanza may have assumed that Roig's classroom
1040-505: A bathroom, when Lanza forced his way into the classroom. Rousseau, Rachel D'Avino (a behavioral therapist who had been employed for a week at the school to work with a special needs student), and fifteen students in Rousseau's class were killed. Fourteen of the children were dead at the scene; one injured child was taken to a hospital for treatment but was later pronounced dead. Most of the teachers and students were found crowded together in
1144-460: A black 2010 Honda Civic . On March 28, 2013, court documents released from the investigation showed that the shooting had occurred in the space of less than five minutes with 156 shots fired. This comprised 154 shots from the rifle and two shots from the 10mm pistol. Lanza fired one shot from the Glock in the hallway and killed himself with another shot from the pistol to the head. Shortly after
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#17327720970801248-448: A bullet that ricocheted. Lanza never entered her classroom. After killing Hochsprung and Sherlach, Lanza entered the main office but apparently did not see the people hiding there, and returned to the hallway. School nurse Sarah (Sally) Cox, 60, hid under a desk in her office. She later described seeing the door opening and Lanza's boots and legs facing her desk from approximately twenty feet (six meters) away. He remained standing for
1352-566: A change in his relationship with Mrs. Lanza, his only caretaker and connection; worsening OCD; depression and anxiety; profound and possibly worsening anorexia; and an increasing obsession with mass murder occurring in the total absence of any engagement with the outside world. Adam increasingly lived in an alternate universe in which ruminations about mass shootings were his central preoccupation". The authors also noted that despite multiple developmental and mental health problems, Lanza had not received adequate mental health treatment. They wrote: "It
1456-577: A classmate at St. Rose of Lima, he entered "late in the school year", and he left in June 2005. At age 14, he went to Newtown High School , where he was named to the honor roll in 2007. Students and teachers who knew him in high school described Lanza as "intelligent but nervous and fidgety". He avoided attracting attention and was uncomfortable socializing. He is not known to have had any close friends in school. Schoolwork often triggered his underlying sense of hopelessness and by 2008, when he turned 16, he
1560-610: A combination of tutoring, independent learning and college classes. Lanza was born and partially raised in Kingston, New Hampshire , about 7 miles (10 km) southwest of Exeter , 30 miles (50 km) east of Manchester , and 50 miles (80 km) north of Boston . While living in New Hampshire at the time, Lanza exhibited developmental challenges before the age of three. These included communication and sensory difficulties, socialization delays, and repetitive behaviors. He
1664-409: A day, to the point where his mother did three loads of laundry a day. He also sometimes went through a box of tissues in a day because he could not touch a doorknob with his bare hand. Mass shooting Note: Varies by jurisdiction Note: Varies by jurisdiction A mass shooting is a violent crime in which one or more attackers kill or injure multiple individuals simultaneously using
1768-404: A defensive infrastructure to combat terrorism are constructive, they do not address the greater issue, which is "we have a lot of really angry young men in our country and in the world." Author Dave Cullen , in his 2009 book Columbine on the 1999 Columbine High School massacre and its perpetrators Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold , described Harris as an "injustice collector." He expanded on
1872-490: A dynamic that is very important for mass shooters as they do not want to be thwarted". Adam Peter Lanza (April 22, 1992 – December 14, 2012) lived with his mother, Nancy Lanza, in Newtown, 5 miles (8 km) from the elementary school. He did not have a criminal record. He had access to guns through his mother, who was described as a "gun enthusiast who owned at least a dozen firearms". She often took her two sons to
1976-419: A few seconds before turning around and leaving. She and the school secretary Barbara Halstead called 9–1–1 and hid in a first-aid supply closet for nearly four hours. Janitor Rick Thorne ran through hallways, alerting classrooms. Lanza entered Room 8, a first-grade classroom where Lauren Rousseau, a substitute teacher, had herded her first-grade students to the back of the room, and was trying to hide them in
2080-598: A glass panel next to the locked front entrance doors of the school. He was wearing black clothing, yellow earplugs, sunglasses, a black hat, and an olive green utility vest. Initial reports that he was wearing body armor were incorrect. Some of those present heard the initial shots on the school intercom system, which was being used for morning announcements. Principal Dawn Hochsprung and school psychologist Mary Sherlach were meeting with other faculty members when they heard, but did not recognize, gunshots. Hochsprung, Sherlach, and lead teacher Natalie Hammond went into
2184-589: A gunshot to the head. The incident is the deadliest mass shooting in Connecticut history and the deadliest at an elementary school in U.S. history. The shooting prompted renewed debate about gun control in the United States , including proposals to make the background check system universal, and for new federal and state gun legislation banning the sale and manufacture of certain types of semi-automatic firearms and magazines which can hold more than ten rounds of ammunition. A November 2013 report issued by
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#17327720970802288-623: A large impact from random chance, outliers , and the specific time frame chosen for analysis. The United States has had the most mass shootings of any country in the world. There were 103 deaths in mass shootings in 2021 (excluding the perpetrators) using the FBI 's definition, and 706 deaths using the Gun Violence Archive 's definition. The FBI's definition refers to "active shooter incidents" defined as "one or more individuals actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in
2392-411: A local shooting range, where they learned to shoot. Lanza's father has said that he does not believe Nancy feared Lanza. She did not confide any fear of Lanza to her sister or to her best friend, slept with her bedroom door unlocked, and kept guns in the house. Lanza attended Sandy Hook Elementary School for four and a half years. He began at Newtown Middle School in 2004, but according to his mother
2496-698: A long gun, such as a rifle or shotgun, but too young to own or carry handguns. The guns he used had been purchased legally by his mother. Wounded: Sources: Sometime before 9:30 a.m. EST on December 14, 2012, Adam Lanza shot and killed his mother Nancy Lanza, aged 52, with a .22-caliber Savage Mark II rifle at their Newtown home. Investigators later found her body in her bed, clad in pajamas, with four gunshot wounds to her head. Lanza then drove to Sandy Hook Elementary School in his mother's car. Shortly after 9:35 a.m., armed with his mother's Bushmaster XM15-E2S rifle and ten magazines with 30 rounds each, Lanza shot his way through
2600-423: A mass shooting can be averted. In considering the frequency of mass shootings in the United States, criminologist Peter Squires says that the individualistic culture in the United States puts the country at greater risk for mass shootings than other countries, noting that many other countries where gun ownership is high, such as Norway, Finland, Switzerland and Israel...tend to have more tight-knit societies where
2704-509: A mass shooting. It is common for mass shooting survivors to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder and survivors guilt . In 2019, Sydney Aiello and Calvin Desir, both survivors of the Parkland high school shooting , committed suicide as a result of survivors guilt. Meadow Pollack was killed in the shooting and was friends with Aiello. The overwhelming majority of mass shooters in
2808-447: A means to an end, such as robbery or terrorism . Media outlets such as CNN , and some crime violence research groups such as the Gun Violence Archive , define mass shootings as involving "four or more shot (injured or killed) in a single incident, at the same general time and location, not including the shooter". Mother Jones magazine defines mass shootings as indiscriminate rampages killing three or more individuals (not including
2912-487: A mix of profound hopelessness and deep-seated resentment." Jillian Peterson , an assistant professor of criminology at Hamline University who is participating in the construction of a database on mass shooters, noted that two phenomena surface repeatedly in the statistics: hopelessness and a need for notoriety in life or in death. Notoriety was first suggested as a possible motive and researched by Justin Nutt. Nutt stated in
3016-539: A period from 1982 to 2019 involved white shooters (who are 65% of the population). According to a database compiled by Mother Jones magazine, the race of the shooters is approximately proportionate to the overall U.S. population, although Asians are overrepresented and Latinos underrepresented. In a study of 55 mass shooters from Mother Jones' mass shooting database, researchers found that 87.5 percent of perpetrators had misdiagnosed and incorrectly treated or undiagnosed and untreated psychiatric illnesses. According to
3120-818: A populated area", while the Gun Violence Archive's definition counts incidents where at least four people (excluding the perpetrator) were shot, but not necessarily killed. In a 2016 study published by criminologist Adam Lankford, it was estimated that 31 percent of all public mass shooters from 1966 to 2012 attacked in the United States, although the U.S. had less than five percent of the world's population. The study concludes that "The United States and other nations with high firearm ownership rates may be particularly susceptible to future public mass shootings, even if they are relatively peaceful or mentally healthy according to other national indicators." Criminologist Gary Kleck criticized Lankford's findings, stating
3224-417: A recipe for mass murder." As of November 30, 2012, 456 children were enrolled in kindergarten through fourth grade at Sandy Hook Elementary School. The school's security protocols had recently been upgraded, requiring visitors to be individually admitted after visual and identification review by video monitor. Doors to the school were locked at 9:30 a.m. each day, after morning arrivals. Newtown
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3328-473: A strong social bond supports people through crises, and mass killings are fewer. He is an advocate of gun control, but contends there is more to mass shootings than the prevalence of guns. The Italian Marxist academic Franco Berardi argues that the hyper-individualism , social alienation and competitiveness fomented by neoliberal ideology and capitalism creates mass shooters by causing people to "malfunction." A noteworthy connection has been reported in
3432-509: A study by The Violence Project, 42 percent of all mass shooters experienced physical or sexual abuse, parental suicide, or were victims of bullying. They also found that 72 percent of perpetrators were suicidal. In a study of 171 mass shooters who attacked in the United States from 1966 to 2019, researchers Adam Lankford and Rebecca Cowan found that although the vast majority of people with mental illness are not violent, "almost all public mass shooters may have mental health problems." They suggest
3536-623: A study funded by the National Institute of Justice , Peterson and Densley found mass shooters had four things in common: This new framework highlights the complexity of the pathway to a mass shooting, including how each one can be "socially contagious," but also provides a blueprint to prevent the next mass shooting. Each one of the four themes represents an opportunity for intervention. By mitigating contagion (validation), training in crisis intervention de-escalation (crisis), and increasing access to affordable mental healthcare (trauma),
3640-412: A variety of definitions of a mass shooting: There are also different definitions of the term mass killing: The lack of a single definition can lead to alarmism in the news media, with some reports conflating categories of different crimes. An act of mass shooting is typically defined as terrorist when it "appears to have been intended" to intimidate or to coerce people; although a mass shooting
3744-624: Is fair to surmise that, had Lanza's mental illness been adequately treated in the last years of his life, one predisposing factor to the tragedy of Sandy Hook might have been mitigated". The report also tentatively disagreed with the conclusions of the State Attorney about why Lanza targeted Sandy Hook. They noted that "According to the FBI, shooters are likely to target places or people that are familiar to them ... The elementary school may have been targeted because he could overpower people,
3848-534: Is in Fairfield County, Connecticut , about 17 miles (30 km) from New Haven, 30 miles (50 km) from Hartford, and 60 miles (100 km) from New York City. Violent crime had been rare in the town of 28,000 residents; there was only one homicide in the town in the ten years before the school shooting. Under the Connecticut gun laws at the time, the 20-year-old Lanza was old enough to carry
3952-633: Is no clear indication why he did so, or why he targeted Sandy Hook elementary school." On the question of Lanza's state of mind, the report noted "significant mental health issues that affected his ability to live a normal life and to interact with others, even those to whom he should have been close ... What contribution this made to the shootings, if any, is unknown as those mental health professionals who saw him did not see anything that would have predicted his future behavior." The report found no evidence that Lanza had taken drugs or medication that would have affected his behavior, and observed, "'Why did
4056-400: Is not necessarily an act of terrorism solely by itself. The perpetrator is typically but not always excluded from the body count . The number of people killed in mass shootings is difficult to determine due to the lack of a commonly agreed definition. It is also difficult to determine whether their frequency is increasing or decreasing over time, for the same reason. In addition, there is
4160-902: Is not the sole cause of mass shootings and many other factors play an important role in perpetrators' decisions to attack. Criminologist James Allen Fox said that most mass murderers do not have a criminal record, or involuntary incarceration at a mental health centre, although an article in The New York Times in December 2015 about 15 recent mass shootings found that six perpetrators had had run-ins with law enforcement, and six had mental health issues. Mass shootings can be motivated by religious extremism , political ideologies (e.g., neo-Nazism , terrorism , white supremacism ), racism , misogyny , homophobia , mental illness , and revenge against bullying , among other reasons. Forensic psychologist Stephen Ross cites extreme anger and
4264-525: The New York Daily News ' front-page headline "God isn't fixing this" was accompanied by "images of tweets from leading Republicans who shared their 'thoughts' and 'prayers' for the shooting victims." Since the 2014 Isla Vista killings , satirical news website The Onion has repeatedly republished the story "No Way to Prevent This", Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens with minor edits after major mass shootings, to satirise
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4368-509: The American Psychological Association published a press release , claiming that mass shooting contagion does exist and that news media and social media enthusiasts should withhold the name(s) and face(s) of the victimizer(s) when reporting a mass shooting to deny the fame the shooter(s) want to curb contagion. Some news media have weighed in on the gun control debate. After the 2015 San Bernardino attack ,
4472-542: The Glock 20SF in classroom 10. Lanza's body was found wearing a pale green pocket vest over a black polo shirt over a black T-shirt, along with black sneakers, black fingerless gloves, black socks, and a black canvas belt. Other objects found in the vicinity of Lanza included a black Boonie hat and thin frame sunglasses. The Glock was found, apparently jammed, near Lanza, and the rifle was found several feet away from him. A 9mm SIG Sauer P226 , which had not been fired during
4576-509: The Gun Violence Archive 's definition. The FBI's definition refers to "active shooter incidents" defined as "one or more individuals actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a populated area", while the Gun Violence Archive's definition counts incidents where at least four people (excluding the perpetrator) were shot, but not necessarily killed. Mass shootings (that occur in public locations) are usually committed by deeply disgruntled individuals who are seeking revenge as
4680-571: The Knoxville Unitarian Universalist church shooting wrote about his reaction to other mass shooting incidents. The father of a victim in a mass shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado , wrote about witnessing other mass shootings after the loss of his son. The survivors of the 2011 Norway attacks recounted their experience to GQ magazine. In addition, one paper studied Swedish police officers' reactions to
4784-1138: The Lanza crime family Giovanni Lanza (1810–1882), Italian politician Giuseppe Lanza , 17th century Sicilian nobleman Jack Lanza (aka Blackjack Lanza) (1935-2021), wrestler James Lanza (1902–2006), Italian-American mobster better known as 'Jimmy the Hat' Jessy Lanza (born 1985), Canadian musician Joseph Lanza (1904–1968), New York labor racketeer and member of the Genovese crime family Laura Lanza (1529–1563), noblewoman in Sicily and murder victim Mario Lanza (1921–1959), American actor and opera singer Nimal Lanza , Sri Lankan Member of Parliament Pietro Lanza di Scalea (1863–1938), Italian noble and politician Robert Lanza (born 1956), American scientist Given name [ edit ] Lanza del Vasto (1901–1981), Italian philosopher and activist. Geography [ edit ] Lanza (Milan Metro) , station of Milan Metro Lanzarote , one of
4888-561: The Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut , United States. The perpetrator, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, shot and killed 26 people. 20 of the victims were children between six and seven years old, and the other six were adult staff members. Earlier that day, before driving to the school, Lanza fatally shot his mother at their Newtown home. As first responders arrived at the school, Lanza killed himself with
4992-434: The 1997 Firearms Amendment Acts, which restricted or made illegal many handguns. Since then, there have been only a handful of mass shootings in the country with relatively few fatalities. The UK has also banned the private ownership of semi-automatic and automatic weapons, and introduced stringent checks before issuing permits to private citizens to own single and low cartridge shotguns. There have been two mass shootings since
5096-559: The Canary Islands See also [ edit ] Lancia (disambiguation) Lanze , German municipality in Schleswig-Holstein Lanzo (disambiguation) [REDACTED] Surname list This page lists people with the surname Lanza . If an internal link intending to refer to a specific person led you to this page, you may wish to change that link by adding the person's given name (s) to
5200-935: The Connecticut State Attorney's office stated that Lanza acted alone and planned his actions, but provided no indication of why he did so, or why he targeted the school. A report issued by the Office of the Child Advocate in November 2014 said that Lanza had Asperger's syndrome and, as a teenager, suffered from depression , anxiety , and obsessive-compulsive disorder , but concluded that these factors "neither caused nor led to his murderous acts". The report went on to say, "his severe and deteriorating internalized mental health problems [...] combined with an atypical preoccupation with violence [...] (and) access to deadly weapons [...] proved
5304-461: The Lanza family later said an impostor gave the interview. A large quantity of unused ammunition was recovered inside the school along with three semi-automatic firearms found with Lanza: a .223-caliber Bushmaster XM15-E2S rifle, a 10mm Glock 20SF handgun, and a 9mm SIG Sauer P226 handgun. Outside the school, an Izhmash Saiga-12 shotgun was found in the car Lanza had driven to the school,
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#17327720970805408-401: The U.S. are male, with some sources showing males account for 98 percent of mass shooters. According to Sky News, male perpetrators committed 110 out of 114 school shootings (96%) in the period 1982–2019, compared to homicides in general in the United States, where 85.3 percent of homicides were committed by males. A study by Statista showed that 65 out of 116 (56%) U.S. mass shootings in
5512-574: The U.S. between mass shootings and domestic or family violence, with a current or former intimate partner or family member killed in 76 of 133 cases (57%), and a perpetrator having previously been charged with domestic violence in 21. Some people have considered whether media attention revolving around the perpetrators of mass shootings is a factor in sparking further incidents. In response to this, some in law enforcement have decided against naming mass shooting suspects in media-related events to avoid giving them notoriety. The effects of messages used in
5616-787: The United Kingdom , which has some of the strictest gun laws in the world. As a result of the Hungerford massacre in Hungerford , England, and the Dunblane school massacre in Stirling, Scotland , the United Kingdom enacted tough gun laws and a buyback program to remove specific classes of firearms from private ownership. They included the Firearms Amendment Act 1988, which limited rifles and shotguns; and
5720-594: The United Kingdom. China's strict gun control laws have prohibited private ownership of firearms since 1951. Japan has as few as two gun-related homicides per year. These numbers include all homicides in the country, not just mass shootings. While gun violence is relatively uncommon in India due to strict gun control laws, incidents of mass shootings and violent attacks continue to occur. Mass shootings are relatively rare in Russia, but they have occurred sporadically over
5824-714: The United States. That represents 29.7 percent. Because America had in those years approximately 4.5 percent of the world's population (according to Lott and Moody's calculations), this indicates that based on their data, the United States had more than six times its global share of public mass shooters who attacked alone (29.7/4.5 = 6.6). In a subsequent study, Lankford criticized Lott and Moody for including "attacks by terrorist organizations, genocidal militias, armed rebel groups, and paramilitary fighters" in their data and suggested they "misrepresent approximately 1,000 foreign cases from their own dataset" in other ways. Mass shootings have also been observed to be followed by an increase in
5928-420: The attack. Janet Robinson, superintendent of Newtown schools, said she had not found any connection between Lanza's mother and the school, in contrast to initial media reports that said Lanza's mother had worked there. Police also investigated whether Lanza was the person who had been in an altercation with four staff members at Sandy Hook School the day before the massacre. It was presumed that he killed two of
6032-509: The auditorium. When several of the children came out of their hiding places and tried to run for safety, Lanza fatally shot them. Soto put herself between her students and the shooter, who then fatally shot her. Anne Marie Murphy, the special education teacher who worked with special-needs students in Soto's classroom, was also shot and killed; she was found covering six-year-old Dylan Hockley, who also died. Soto and four children were found dead in
6136-414: The authorities. The victims' bodies were removed from the school and formally identified during the night after the shooting. A state trooper was assigned to each victim's family to protect their privacy and provide them with information. On December 4, 2013, six 911 calls relating to the shooting were made public. Investigators did not find a suicide note or any messages referring to the planning of
6240-409: The bathroom. A six-year-old girl, the sole survivor, was found by police in the classroom following the shooting. She hid in a corner of the classroom's bathroom during the shooting. Her family's pastor said she survived by playing dead. When she reached her mother, she said, "Mommy, I'm okay, but all my friends are dead." The child described the shooter as "someone who she felt was angry, who she felt
6344-521: The case was closed. The report noted that "[Lanza] had a familiarity with and access to firearms and ammunition and an obsession with mass murders, in particular the April 1999 shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado." The report did not identify a specific motive for the shooting, stating, "The evidence clearly shows that the shooter planned his actions, including the taking of his own life, but there
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#17327720970806448-435: The children for approximately 40 minutes, at which point law enforcement came to lead them out of the room. When police interviewed survivors, a teacher recalled hearing Lanza curse several times, as well as telling them to, "Look at me!", "Come over here!", and "Look at them!" The police heard the final shot at 9:40:03 a.m. They believed that it was Lanza shooting himself in the lower rear portion of his head with
6552-447: The classroom's teacher, Victoria Leigh Soto , had concealed some of the students in a closet or bathroom, and some of the other students were hiding under desks. Soto was walking back to the classroom door to lock it when Lanza entered the classroom. Lanza walked to the back of the classroom, saw the children under the desks, and shot them. First-grader Jesse Lewis shouted at his classmates to run for safety, and several of them did. Lewis
6656-452: The classroom. The final report into the shooting concluded that the sequence of events in Rooms 8 and 10 was "indeterminate". A Hartford Courant report said that six of the children who escaped did so when Lanza stopped shooting, either because his weapon jammed or he erred in reloading it. Earlier reports said that, as Lanza entered her classroom, Soto told him that the children were in
6760-563: The classroom. Soto was near the north wall of the room with a set of keys nearby. One child was taken to the hospital, but was pronounced dead. Six surviving children from the class and a school bus driver took refuge at a nearby home. According to the official report released by the state's attorney, nine children ran from Soto's classroom, and police found two hiding in a class bathroom. Five of Soto's students were killed. First-grade teacher Kaitlin Roig, 29 years old, hid fifteen students in
6864-579: The concept in a 2015 New Republic essay on injustice collectors, identifying several notorious killers as fitting the category, including Christopher Dorner , Elliot Rodger , Vester Flanagan , and Andrew Kehoe . Likewise, mass shooting expert and former FBI profiler Mary O'Toole also uses the phrase "injustice collector" in characterizing motives of some mass shooting perpetrators. In relation, criminologist James Alan Fox contends that mass murderers are "enabled by social isolation" and typically experience "years of disappointment and failure that produce
6968-629: The coverage of mass shootings have been studied. Researchers studied the role the coverage plays in shaping attitudes toward persons with serious mental illness and public support for gun control policies. In 2015, a paper written by a physicist and statistician, Sherry Towers , along with four colleagues was published, which proved that there is indeed mass shooting contagion using mathematical modeling . However, in 2017, Towers said in an interview that she prefers self-regulation to censorship to address this issue, just like years ago major news outlets successfully prevent copycat suicide . In 2016,
7072-620: The damaged drive had proven unsuccessful. Police believe that Lanza extensively researched earlier mass shootings, as they had found that Lanza had videos relating to the Columbine High School massacre and other shootings downloaded onto another hard drive, along with two videos of suicide by gunshot. Details of the investigation were reported by law enforcement officials at a meeting of the International Association of Police Chiefs and Colonels held during
7176-437: The first call. Connecticut State Police (CSP) were dispatched at 9:37 a.m. Newtown police arrived at the school street at 9:39 a.m., approximately three-and-a-half minutes after the 911 call, and Connecticut State Police arrived at the school street at 9:46 a.m. Newtown police first entered the school at 9:45 a.m., approximately nine minutes after the first 911 call and approximately ten minutes after
7280-405: The four staff members involved in the altercation (the principal and the psychologist) and wounded the third (the lead teacher) in the attack; the fourth staff member was not at the school that day. The state police said they did not know of any reports about any altercations at the school. Police sources initially reported that Lanza's brother Ryan Lanza, then aged 24, was the perpetrator. This
7384-421: The frequency of mental health problems among mass shooters is sometimes underestimated because "many perpetrators have never been formally evaluated by a psychiatrist or mental health practitioner...and others deliberately avoid doctors, conceal their mental health problems, or lie about their symptoms due to shame, stigma, or fear of other consequences." However, Lankford and Cowan also emphasize that mental illness
7488-408: The hall to determine the source of the sounds and encountered Lanza. A faculty member who was at the meeting said that the three women called out "Shooter, stay put!", which alerted their colleagues of the danger and saved their lives. An aide heard gunshots. A teacher hiding in the math lab heard school janitor Rick Thorne yell, "Put the gun down!" Lanza killed both Hochsprung and Sherlach. Hammond
7592-468: The hallway to the office to deliver the morning attendance sheet as the shooting began. Teacher Abbey Clements pulled both children into her classroom, where they hid. Laura Feinstein, a reading specialist at the school, gathered two students from outside her classroom and hid with them under desks after they heard gunshots. Feinstein called the school office and tried to call 911, but could not connect due to lack of reception on her cell phone. She hid with
7696-428: The incident, was found on Lanza. Authorities determined that Lanza reloaded frequently during the shootings, sometimes firing only 15 rounds from a 30-round magazine. He shot all but two of his victims multiple times. Most of the shooting took place in two first-grade classrooms near the entrance of the school. The students among the victims totaled eight boys and twelve girls, all either six or seven years old, and
7800-399: The intercom while he, his classmates, and his teacher took refuge in a closet in the gymnasium. Diane Day, a school therapist who had been at the faculty meeting with Hochsprung, was heard screaming followed by more gunshots. A second teacher, who was a substitute kindergarten teacher, was wounded in the attack. While she was closing a door further down the hallway, she was hit in the foot with
7904-412: The link. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lanza&oldid=1255748807 " Categories : Surnames Italian-language surnames Hidden categories: Articles with short description Short description is different from Wikidata All set index articles Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting On December 14, 2012, a mass shooting occurred at
8008-549: The notion of working for a cause – rather than mental illness – as primary explanations. A study by Vanderbilt University researchers found that "fewer than five percent of the 120,000 gun-related killings in the United States between 2001 and 2010 were perpetrated by people diagnosed with mental illness." John Roman of the Urban Institute argues that, while better access to mental health care, restricting high powered weapons, and creating
8112-529: The past decade. Most of the incidents involve lone gunmen, although there have been a few cases involving multiple shooters. Mass shootings have become a common occurrence in Mexico, particularly in recent years. The country has been plagued by violence from drug cartels, which have been responsible for many of the deadliest mass shootings in Mexico's history . Brazil has one of the highest rates of gun violence in
8216-410: The perpetrator), and excluding gang violence and armed robbery. An Australian study from 2006 specifies five individuals killed. The number of people killed in mass shootings is difficult to determine due to the lack of a commonly agreed upon definition. In the United States, there were 103 deaths in mass shootings in 2021 (excluding the perpetrators) using the FBI 's definition, and 706 deaths using
8320-533: The popular consensus that there is a lack of political power in the United States to prevent mass shootings. Responses to mass shootings take a variety of forms, depending on the country and political climate. After the 1996 Port Arthur massacre , Australia changed its gun laws . In the aftermath of the Christchurch mosque shootings , New Zealand announced a ban on almost all semiautomatic military-style weapons. Mass shootings are extremely rare in
8424-576: The purchase of weapons, but this does not seem to create an increased feeling of needing guns in either gun owners or non-owners. Even though the global COVID-19 pandemic reduced public gatherings from March 2020 onward, the number of mass shootings increased significantly over that period. It "even doubled in July 2020 compared to a year earlier". Mass shootings (and firearm deaths in general) virtually never happen in China, Singapore, South Korea, Japan and
8528-406: The same officials, it also appeared that Lanza "may have taken target practice in the basement". The Hartford Courant reported that Lanza had edited Misplaced Pages articles related to mass shootings with the username Kaynbred. The final report of the State Attorney summarizing the investigation into the shooting was published on November 25, 2013. It concluded that Adam Lanza had acted alone, and that
8632-426: The school. They swept the school for other shooters at least four times. At approximately 10:00 a.m., Danbury Hospital sent extra medical personnel in expectation of having to treat numerous victims. Three wounded patients were evacuated to the hospital, where two children were later declared dead. The other was an unidentified adult. The New York City medical examiner dispatched a portable morgue to assist
8736-723: The shooter murder twenty-seven people, including twenty children?' Unfortunately, that question may never be answered conclusively, despite the collection of extensive background information on the shooter through a multitude of interviews and other sources." On December 27, 2013, police released thousands of pages of documents pertaining to the investigation. In accordance with law, the names of victims and witnesses were redacted or withheld. The summary report included information about items found on Lanza's computer equipment, including writings and material about previous mass shootings. A former teacher of Lanza's noted that he exhibited antisocial behavior, rarely interacted with other students, and
8840-411: The shooting started. This was approximately five minutes after the last shot was heard. No shots were fired by the police. The Newtown police and Connecticut State Police mobilized local police dog and police tactical units , a bomb squad , and a state police helicopter. Police locked down the school and began evacuating the survivors room by room, escorting groups of students and adults away from
8944-532: The shooting, police announced that Lanza used the rifle to kill the victims at the school. At a press conference on December 15, Dr. H. Wayne Carver II, the Chief Medical Examiner of Connecticut, was asked about the wounds, and replied "All the ones that I know of at this point were caused by the long weapon." When asked if the children suffered before dying, Carver replied by stating that "If so, not for very long". Carver, whose office autopsied
9048-435: The six adults were all women who worked at the school. Bullets were also found in at least three cars parked outside the school, leading police to believe that he fired at a teacher who was standing near a window. The first call to 911 was around 9:35 a.m. Newtown 911 police dispatch first broadcast that there was a shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School (SHES) at 9:36 a.m., about 30 seconds after they received
9152-451: The study merely shows a proportional relationship but fails to prove that gun ownership causes mass shootings. The backlash from economist and gun rights advocate John Lott also raised objections to Lankford's methodology and refusal to share his data. He speculated that Lankford had overlooked a significant number of mass shootings outside the U.S., which if accounted for would adjust the nation's share closer to 2.88 percent; slightly below
9256-631: The victims and who personally performed seven, said the injuries were "devastating" and that parents identified their children from photographs to spare them the sight. All the child victims were first-graders, and all were killed with the Bushmaster XM15. Carver said the bullets used were "designed in such a fashion the energy is deposited in the tissue so the bullet stays in." Investigators evaluated Lanza's body, looking for evidence of drugs or medication through toxicology tests. Unusually for an investigation of this type, DNA testing of Lanza
9360-461: The week of March 11, 2013. An article published in the New York Daily News on March 17, 2013, provided purported details of this report by an anonymous law enforcement veteran who had attended the meeting. The source stated that the investigation had found that Lanza had created a 7-by-4-foot sized spreadsheet listing around 500 mass murderers and the weapons they used, which was considered to have taken years of work and to have been used by Lanza as
9464-466: The world average. Lankford has since followed up on his research, publishing his data and clarifying that the United States from 1998 to 2012 did have more than six times its global share of public mass shooters who attacked alone, which is almost always the case with mass shooters. Using the data from Lott and Moody's 2019 study of mass shootings, Lankford explains that "41 of all 138 public mass shootings by single perpetrators worldwide were committed in
9568-611: The world, and mass shootings have become more common in recent years. In 2022, there were at least 10 mass shootings in Brazil, resulting in the deaths of over 50 people. Furthermore, In 2017, there were over 45,000 gun-related homicides countrywide. In Africa, whilst incidents of mass violence resulting from terrorism and ethnic conflict have occurred, "mass shootings" are generally understood as rare. After mass shootings, some survivors have written about their experiences and their experiences have been covered by journalists. A survivor of
9672-483: Was "sick", "[doesn't] talk to anyone", and that Ryan "didn't know him anymore". Connecticut State Police indicated their concern about misinformation being posted on social media sites and threatened prosecution of anyone involved with such activities. Ryan was also mistakenly reported to have mourned his mother and brother on social media and to have been interviewed by the New York Post . A spokesperson for
9776-431: Was "wracked by anxiety". She told friends that her son started getting upset in middle school because of frequent classroom changes during the day. The movement and noise were too stimulating and made him anxious. At one point, his anxiety was so intense that she took him to the emergency room at Danbury Hospital. Because of the smaller class sizes, his mother moved him to a parochial school, St. Rose of Lima . According to
9880-451: Was empty because the door was closed and the window was covered. School library staff Yvonne Cech and Maryann Jacob tried to hide 18 children in a part of the library the school used for lockdown in practice drills. When they discovered that one door would not lock, they had the children crawl into a storage room, where Cech barricaded the door with a filing cabinet. Two third-grade students, chosen as classroom helpers, were walking down
9984-442: Was hit first in the leg, and then sustained another gunshot wound. She laid still in the hallway and then, not hearing any more noise, crawled back to the conference room and pressed her body against the door to keep it closed. She was later treated at Danbury Hospital . A nine-year-old boy said he heard the shooter say "Put your hands up!" and someone else say "Don't shoot!" He also heard many people yelling and many gunshots over
10088-439: Was looking at Lanza when Lanza fatally shot him. Another account, given by a surviving child's father, said that Soto had moved the children to the back of the classroom, and that they were seated on the floor when Lanza entered. According to this account, neither Lanza nor any of the occupants of the classroom spoke. Lanza stared at the people on the floor, pointed the gun at a boy seated there, but did not fire. The boy ran out of
10192-416: Was mad." A girl who was hiding in a bathroom along with two teachers told police that she heard a boy in the classroom screaming, "Help me! I don't want to be here!", to which Lanza responded, "Well, you're here," followed by "hammering" sounds. Lanza also went to Room 10, another first-grade classroom nearby; at this point, there are conflicting reports about the order of events. According to some reports,
10296-569: Was obsessed with writing "about battles, destruction and war." The Report of the Office of the Child Advocate concluded: "There was not one thing that was necessarily the tipping point driving Lanza to commit the Sandy Hook shooting. Rather there was a cascade of events, many self-imposed, that included: loss of school; absence of work; disruption of the relationship with his one friend; virtually no personal contact with family; virtually total and increasing isolation; fear of losing his home and of
10400-436: Was only going to school occasionally. The intense anxiety Lanza experienced at the time suggests his autism might have been exacerbated by the hormonal shifts of adolescence. He was home-schooled to varying degrees by his mother and father throughout his high school years. In 2008 and 2009, he also attended some classes at Western Connecticut State University . He earned a high school diploma from Newtown High School through
10504-453: Was placed on "homebound" status, which is reserved for children who are too disabled, even with supports and accommodations, to attend school. When he was 13, Lanza was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome by a psychiatrist, Paul Fox. When he was 14, his parents took him to Yale University 's Child Study Center , where he was also diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). He frequently washed his hands and changed his socks 20 times
10608-700: Was probably because Adam was carrying Ryan's identification, Ryan told The Jersey Journal . Ryan, who lived in Hoboken, New Jersey , and was at his job in New York City at the time of the shooting, voluntarily submitted to questioning by New Jersey State Police , Connecticut State Police, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation . Police said he was not considered a suspect, and he was not taken into custody. Ryan said he had not been in touch with Adam since 2010; when asked why, Ryan said his brother
10712-496: Was seen by the New Hampshire Birth to Three intervention program and referred to special education preschool services. Once at elementary school, he was diagnosed with a sensory-integration disorder . The sensory-processing disorder does not have official status by the medical community as a formal diagnosis but is a common characteristic of autism. His anxiety affected his ability to attend school and in 8th grade he
10816-490: Was utilized. The results of the toxicology report were published in October 2013, and stated that no alcohol or drugs were found in his system. Lanza's autopsy showed no tumors or gross deformities in his brain. Lanza removed the hard drive from his computer and intentionally damaged it before the shooting, creating a challenge for investigators to recover data . As of the final report's publication, recovering data from
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