Search warrant documents released today offer new details of Adam Lanza’s troubled life and his horrific assault on Sandy Hook Elementary School. They are an inventory of carnage and a life seemingly consumed with weapons.
They offer stark details: Lanza died in the middle of three classrooms he attacked, clad in military gear and a bullet-proof vest. His mother, Nancy Lanza, was discovered at their home, dead in bed, shot once in the forehead.
The state police affidavits and lists of the items seized at two crime scenes, the Lanza home and Sandy Hook Elementary, offer hints and clues but no definitive answers about what launched his bloody mission on Dec. 14.
Their house at 36 Yogananda Street in Newtown, a pale yellow Colonial with dark green shutters, contained guns and ammunition – a thousand rounds in a gun safe and closet, ammo for shotguns, handguns and rifles.
The Lanzas – the affidavit does not specify whom – also had a collection of knives and three Samurai swords.
In one affidavit, authorities quoted an acquaintance describing the killer as a “shut in and avid gamer who plays Call of Duty,” a video game that gives the player the perspective of a soldier on violent missions.
An inventory of items found in the house reflected the mother’s passionate interest in firearms and shooting and the challenges posed by the youngest of her two sons, 20-year-old Adam.
His report card from Sandy Hook was in the house. So were emails and documents relating to weapons, including the purchase of a Glock handgun. Police found a holiday card made out to Adam, with a check made out for a firearm.
Three books were seized. Two were about autism: “Look me in the eye, my life with Aspergers,” and “Born on a blue day. Inside the mind of an autistic savant.”
The third was the “NRA guide to the basics of pistol shooting.”