School Climate & Safety Report Roundup

Sandy Hook Shooting Report

By Evie Blad — December 03, 2013 | Updated: May 29, 2024 1 min read
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Updated: A previous version of this article had the title School Shootings.

A much-anticipated report on the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School officially confirms some widely reported details of the Dec. 14, 2012, massacre at the Newtown, Conn., school and provides some new insights. But it does not answer the key question of why the gunman planned and carried out the attack.

Adam Lanza, 20, acted alone when he gunned down 26 people at the school, the summary report released last month says, and he used weapons and ammunition that were legally purchased by his mother. While State’s Attorney Stephen Sedensky III found no clear motive, he found items that suggest Lanza had a fascination with mass killings, including a computer game called School Shooting that was found in his home.

The report is the first official information about the police response to the massacre to be made public. It concludes that Mr. Lanza had “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,” but mental health professionals who treated him “did not see anything that would have predicted his future behavior.”

A version of this article appeared in the December 04, 2013 edition of Education Week as School Shootings

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