Adam Lanza identified as the gunman in Connecticut massacre
Ryan Lanza, the brother of the Connecticut massacre gunman Adam Lanza, defended himself in a series of bizarre Facebook posts after he was mistakenly named as the killer when his ID was reportedly found at the scene.
Ryan Lanza, 24, seemed unaware that his younger brother, Adam Lanza, had gunned down 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School, in Newtown before taking his own life.
“Everyone shut the f*** up it wasn’t me,” Ryan Lanza insisted on his Facebook page on Friday.
“I’m on the bus home now it wasn’t me. IT WASN’T ME I WAS AT WORK IT WASN’T ME.”
The Associated Press said the mix-up came after an official mistakenly transposed the brothers’ first names, while a New Jersey reporter said Ryan Lanza told him the killer may have had his ID.
He is now being questioned by police in Hoboken, New Jersey, but police said he is not a suspect.
Adam Lanza, 20, was dressed in black military gear and a bullet proof vest when he opened fire in the principal’s office and then moving to a kindergarten classroom where his mother, Nancy, taught.
Sources told the New York Post that Adam Lanza had “had a dispute with” his mother, who was found dead at her home. He then drove to the school in her car and gunned down her kindergarten class, Fox reported.
Adam Lanza died of a self-inflicted gun wound at the scene. The Newtown Patch reported that he may have been developmentally disabled.
After Adam Lanza unleashed terror on the elementary school – the second biggest in U.S. history – the body of his father was reportedly found at their home in Newton at 2:00 p.m.
The Associated Press reported that Adam Lanza’s girlfriend and another friend are missing in New Jersey.
Ryan Lanza, the brother of the Connecticut massacre gunman Adam Lanza, defended himself in a series of bizarre Facebook posts after he was mistakenly named as the killer
Police surrounded a Hoboken apartment, believed to be the home of Ryan Lanza, on Grand Street on Friday afternoon.
According to sources, he drove to the scene of the shootings in his mother’s car and opened fire at 9:41 a.m. on Friday.
Three guns were found at the scene – a Glock and a Sig Sauer, both pistols – and a .223-caliber rifle. The rifle was recovered from the back of a car at the school. The two pistols were recovered from inside the school.
The identities of the other victims have not yet been released but include the school principal, Dawn Hochsprung, and psychologist. Two of the children died while on the way to hospital.
Robert Licata said his six-year-old son was in class when the gunman burst in and shot the teacher.
“That’s when my son grabbed a bunch of his friends and ran out the door,” he said.
“He was very brave. He waited for his friends.”
Stephen Delgiadice said his eight-year-old daughter heard two big bangs and teachers told her to get in a corner. His daughter was fine.
“It’s alarming, especially in Newtown, Connecticut, which we always thought was the safest place in America,” he said.
A dispatcher at the Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps said a teacher had been shot in the foot and taken to Danbury Hospital.
Andrea Rynn, a spokeswoman at the hospital, said it had three patients from the school but she did not have information on the extent or nature of their injuries.
Mergim Bajraliu, 17, heard the gunshots echo from his home and raced to check on his 9-year-old sister at the school. He said his sister, who was fine, heard a scream come over the intercom at one point. He said teachers were shaking and crying as they came out of the building.
“Everyone was just traumatized,” he said.
The shooting is the latest in a series of high-profile gun crimes in American schools and colleges that is especially shocking given the age of the students involved.
[youtube 6ClhP9QufeM]