Adam Peter Lanza (April 22, 1992 – December 14, 2012) was an American mass murderer who perpetrated the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, one of the deadliest mass shootings and mass murders in American history.On December 14, 2012, he fatally shot his mother, Nancy Lanza, at their home in Newtown, Connecticut, before driving to Sandy Hook Elementary School, where he murdered 20 children aged six and seven, and six adult staff members. He then killed himself as law enforcement arrived at the school.
Lanza was born in Exeter, New Hampshire, and grew up in Newtown, Connecticut, where he was raised primarily by his mother following his parents' divorce in 2008. From an early age, he was diagnosed with a number of neurodevelopmental conditions, including Asperger syndrome, sensory processing disorder, and obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD). He was described by those who knew him as highly intelligent but profoundly withdrawn. He struggled throughout his childhood and adolescence with social interaction and emotional regulation, and hated to be touched.
As a teenager, Lanza became increasingly isolated and had no close friends throughout middle and high school. His anxiety led to him being placed on homebound status in middle school, meaning he received instructions at home rather than attending classes, but he recouped by high school and started attending classes again as well as socialising, additionally applying for university and college classes for extra credit. He graduated high school early at 16. His mother declined treatments recommended by the Yale Child Study Center, preferring to accommodate his preferences rather than forcing him to adapt to social environments and improving his mental health. By 2010, Lanza withdrew from almost all social contact, cut off all contact with his father and brother, and was a recluse in his mother's home, using trash bags to black out the windows in his bedroom. By 2012, he refused to leave his room and only communicated with his mother via email. He had developed an intense preoccupation with mass violence, compiling extensive research on prior shootings and discussed the topic with others on various online forums and websites.
Lanza had access to an arsenal of legally purchased firearms belonging to his mother, an avid gun enthusiast, which he would use to carry out the murders. Severe mental illness, social isolation, and access to weapons were all identified as contributing factors to the shooting by Connecticut state authorities and the Office of the Child Advocate. The Sandy Hook shooting led to renewed legislative efforts on gun control at both the state and federal level. Nancy Lanza's role in facilitating her son's access to firearms became a significant point of public and legal scrutiny.
Early life and education Elementary and middle school years Adam Peter Lanza was born on April 22, 1992, in Exeter, New Hampshire, the second son of Peter and Nancy Lanza ( Champion). Nancy experienced hypotension and hypoglycemia among other problems during the pregnancy, and gave birth to Adam via C-section due to decreased fetal movement. The Lanza family moved to Newtown, Connecticut, after Peter started a new job at General Electric in 1998. Reports say that when he was younger, he learned to shoot through the Cub Scouts. Lanza had a pet hamster named Skippy.
Lanza attended Sandy Hook Elementary School for four and a half years. Nancy's house was located five miles away from Sandy Hook Elementary School. His father, Peter, described him as a "normal little weird kid" who enjoyed playing with Legos and inventing board games. While teachers noted he was academically bright, he required an Individualized Education Program (IEP) for speech and social-emotional support from preschool onward. Within the local region, Sandy Hook Elementary School had a reputation for being accommodating to special needs students in the late 1990s.
Lanza's parents separated in 2002 with Peter living in an apartment in downtown Stamford, Connecticut while Nancy remained in the family home. When Adam was interviewed by a psychiatrist in 2006, he answered that his parents separated probably because they "irritated" each other just as they irritate him. Peter did not believe that his separation from Nancy negatively impacted their children. He spent as much time with his children after the separation as before it, since he worked full-time and only saw his children on weekends.
Lanza attended Reed Intermediate School for sixth grade in 2003. Lanza started attending Newtown Middle School in 2004. The transition to middle school—where he had to change classrooms and navigate noisy hallways—was physically and emotionally overwhelming for him. His mother reported that he experienced intense anxiety during this period. 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.
In 2006, Lanza's mother noted some abnormal changes about her son's behavior around the seventh grade. He discontinued playing the saxophone, dropped out of a school band that he was previously in, and withdrew from playing soccer or baseball which he said he did not enjoy. Because of the smaller class sizes, his mother moved him to a parochial school, St. Rose of Lima, in April 2005. Lanza attended St. Rose of Lima for only eight weeks and left in June 2005. By eighth grade, his anxiety was so severe that he was placed on homebound status, receiving instruction at home rather than in a classroom.
At age 10, Lanza co-authored the Big Book of Granny, which contained graphic descriptions of violence against children, indicating a very early preoccupation that went largely unaddressed. In the seventh grade, Lanza wrote a 10-page essay titled "Battles, Destruction and War" that caused a teacher to believe he was consumed by "feelings of rage, hate and (at least unconscious) murderous impulses". The writing was described by the educator as so graphic and violent that it could not be shared with the rest of the class. The teacher then asked Lanza to write something else to share with the class. Lanza later wrote and presented a poem to a public audience which was so lovely that it made his father cry.
High school and university years Lanza attended Newtown High School, where he was active in a technology club, for which he once hosted a LAN party at his house where he played games with other students in the club. but remained socially isolated. 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 was not known to have had any close friends in school. The intense anxiety Lanza experienced at the time suggests his autism might have been exacerbated by the hormonal shifts of adolescence. Lanza was named to the honor roll a few times, but there are no photos of him inside the high school yearbooks.
At age 16, while still a high school student, Lanza enrolled in classes at Western Connecticut State University and Norwalk Community College in 2008 and 2009, respectively, for extra credit for high school. At Western Connecticut, two classmates described him as nice, quiet (which was believed to be because of how much younger he was compared to everybody else) who would smile sometimes, participate upon being called on by the teacher, and who they would said hi to from time to time. He was once invited to a bar by two classmates but he declined stating that he was only 17. He maintained a 3.26 GPA on his college transcript, and a 3.89 GPA on his high school transcript. He earned an A in Visual Basic computer programming, an A− in website production, an A− in American history since 1877, a B in macroeconomics, and a C in Introduction to Ethical Theory, his lowest passing grade. However, he dropped out of several classes in these years which were Data Modelling, introductory German, which he reported to an aforementioned classmate that he had received a D in an exam before dropping out, computer science, and Database (DB) design. His mother eventually withdrew him from high school to finish his credits early through a mix of tutoring and independent study. He earned his high school diploma from Newtown High School at age 16 through a combination of tutoring, independent learning and college classes. The Office of the Child Advocate later concluded that his schools often focused on managing his symptoms rather than addressing the underlying social-emotional deficits.
For a while, Lanza worked as an independent contractor at a computer repair shop until it went out of business, as indicated in a written letter from his employer in March 2009. Lanza's employer described him as "cordial, professional" and having "expert attributes". Lanza had some interest in enlisting in the military when he was 18, but he never did. Lanza got his driver's license in 2010.
Lanza's parents divorced in September 2009 after Nancy filed for divorce in November 2008, citing "the marriage has broken down irretrievably". Observers and court documents described the split as relatively amicable, with no public disputes over property or parenting. Peter agreed to a substantial alimony arrangement that provided Nancy with nearly $290,000 annually by 2012. He also committed to paying for both sons' college and graduate educations. They shared joint legal custody of Adam, who was 17 at the time of the finalization, though he lived primarily with Nancy. The agreement gave Nancy the final decision-making power if they could not agree on issues regarding Lanza, as she always had.
Relationships with his mother and others Nancy became a housewife mother shortly after Adam was born. He had access to the guns used in the shooting through his mother, who was described as a "gun enthusiast who owned at least a dozen firearms". She often took her two sons to a local shooting range, where they learned to shoot. Lanza's father, Peter, has said that he does not believe Nancy feared Adam. She did not confide any fear of him to her sister or to her best friend, slept with her bedroom door unlocked, and kept guns in the house. Adam struggled with showing basic emotions and would be coached by his mother when he was young. Adam was involved in a school play during his childhood, his mother had written to a friend "Adam has taken it very seriously, even practicing facial expressions in the mirror!" The state's attorney report on the shooting states that when Nancy asked Adam whether he would feel sad if anything happened to her, he replied "No." After her divorce, Nancy would take vacations to leave Adam alone in the house for days at a time, hoping that it would make Adam become more independent. She went to fine restaurants, slept in hotels, was in Boston on a regular basis, and occasionally flew to England, New Orleans, and San Francisco. Before each trip, she left prepared meals in the refrigerator for Adam to eat. In 2010, Lanza became a complete recluse. He lived in his mother's home, where he used black trash bags to black out the windows of his bedroom. He communicated with his mother, Nancy, almost exclusively via email, despite living together. In the final months, he often refused to leave his room or engage with her at all.
He abruptly cut off all contact with his father, Peter, in 2010 and was estranged from his older brother, Ryan. The no contact with his father may have been due to heated disagreement over whether Lanza could handle a full load of courses at Norwalk Community College. Lanza never had an intimate relationship with anyone, nor did he ever voluntarily hug anyone.