Connecticut Elementary School Massacre

[MacCruiskeen]

Second request:

Could someone please post any verifiable or at least credible evidence that the masked gunman was in fact positively identified by any of the surviving witnesses as Adam Lanza? Thank you.

I mean, for example, something like:

"I saw the gunman's face. It was the Lanza boy, I couldn't mistake him. He's lived in this small town all his life."

or:

"I saw the gunman's face. It matched the photos I've since seen of Adam Lanza."

or maybe just:

"I saw the gunman's face. He was a very young, dark-haired guy."

or at the very least:

"I didn't see the gunman's face, because he was masked the entire time. But I did notice he was extremely thin."

Something like that. Some actual identification of the culprit, or at least a smidgeon of supporting evidence, from at least one credible independent witness with an actual name. Or even without one, at a pinch. That is all.

Thank you. I know it's a lot to ask, in these post-legal days. But I'm old-fashioned that way, and independent verification of the culprit's identity is the kind of thing that used to be taken for granted before the current Age of Spectacular Terror.

And frankly I've a had a bellyful of this Whydunnit shit. (He was a devil-worshipper / he was entirely insensitive to pain!*/ he was "autistic" / his mother was a monster / he was not just any old studious, skinny, hypersensitive, painfully shy, vegan youth, but one of those rare ones who is also an icecold hardassed sharpshootin muthafucka.) Please. Let's first see the evidence that He actually Dunnit at all, if he actually did. As opposed to someone else wearing a mask.

* How amazing that Adam Lanza even managed to reach the age of twenty! And how simply astounding that it took several days (a full week?) for anyone in that tiny town to even mention his extraordinarily rare and extremely dangerous medical condition!

[DrEvil]

considering the amount of killing done in such a shot time a second shooter seems likely to me.

Not necessarily. The guy was heavily armed and had the kids cornered.

[DrEvil]

@Mac: Looks to me like most of the witnesses are either dead, or young traumatized children.

Finding the guy in combat gear, with his mother's guns, dead at the crime scene from what looks like a self inflicted wound all points to him doing it. Checking to see if he actually fired the weapons or not should be a simple matter.

[MacCruiskeen]

@Mac: Looks to me like most of the witnesses are either dead, or young traumatized children.

How many teachers and other adult employees are there at that school? Did nobody even see how unusually thin the gunman was? Or was the gunman not, in fact unusually thin?

And nobody heard the shots at his mother's house? And nobody saw him leaving the house and entering her car heavily-armed and dressed in combat gear? Or driving that car heavily-armed and dressed in combat gear? Or exiting that car and walking up to the school heavily-armed and dressed in combat gear?

Finding the guy in combat gear, with his mother's guns, dead at the crime scene from what looks like a self inflicted wound all points to him doing it.

Well it would, wouldn't it? If, by contrast, he'd been murdered and then set up (or set up and then murdered), how would it look instead?

Checking to see if he actually fired the weapons or not should be a simple matter.

It should. But do you think anyone will bother? And if they do, do you think (in this post-legal Age of Spectacular Terror) they'll bother to tell us, and even to publish the evidence?

[MacCruiskeen]

Two more questions:

1. Who was first on the crime scene?

2. Who's in charge of the investigation? The FBI?

[undead]

Just a note on the "inability to feel pain" thing. Although rare in the general population, this condition is extremely common in people with autism. It is part of the danger of self-inflicted injuries that autistic people face, because most of the time they don't feel it in the way that a person without autism would feel it. I thought about it a lot when I was working in a group home and watching people biting themselves and trying to poke their own eyes out all the time. Nobody knows how or why this happens but to me it always seemed like the guys I worked with (who were all dual-diagnosis with other problems) seemed to struggle to stay connected to their physical bodies. Perhaps it could be that they feel frustrated and are trying to feel some physical sensation, like anyone would do if their hand fell asleep, or something.

In any case, being immune to emotional pain is certainly not part of this condition, and it is an extremely irresponsible, vile, and dehumanizing thing to be saying about anyone. It's like how they used to say that animals don't feel pain the way humans do - a patently false idea that excuses cruel and hurtful actions against them. Saying that he didn't feel emotional pain is like saying he wasn't human, he was a monster.

[MacCruiskeen]

By Will Oremus in Slate, one of the very, very, very few articles worth reading about this whole disgusting circus. Already published on December 14th (!), it provides some essential context for all of the crackerbarrel psychology and sociology that's been spewed out so bulimically on websites left, right and centre in the week since then.

Essential reading, really. It's mercifully short, too.

(The headline's misleading, though. "Detective" is certainly not the word they're looking for. "Psychoanalyst", maybe.)

[lupercal]

Second request:

Could someone please post any verifiable or at least credible evidence that the masked gunman was in fact positively identified by any of the surviving witnesses as Adam Lanza? Thank you.

I mean, for example, something like:

"I saw the gunman's face. It was the Lanza boy, I couldn't mistake him. He's lived in this small town all his life."

or:

"I saw the gunman's face. It matched the photos I've since seen of Adam Lanza."

or maybe just:

"I saw the gunman's face. He was a very young, dark-haired guy."

or at the very least:

"I didn't see the gunman's face, because he was masked the entire time. But I did notice he was extremely thin."

Something like that. Some actual identification of the culprit, or at least a smidgeon of supporting evidence, from at least one credible independent witness with an actual name. Or even without one, at a pinch. That is all.

Yes. Something like this maybe:


This is the smartphone age and even if the students were too young to be carrying i-phones, what about the other teachers, parents, cops, and firemen? The shooting was over fast -- apparently "Lanza" shot out a glass door at 9:46 and shot himself in the head (we're told) at 9:53, according to one timeline, meaning:

a) he was an incredibly good shot, having polished off 6 adults and 20 kids -- six of them running from a closet in the second classroom -- in under 10 min. (a local cop described him as "uncannily accurate"), and

b) there was plenty of time for various LEOs and parents on the scene to photograph his corpse, either in the school or outside, on a gurney or in a vehicle. Surely TMZ or some similar tab would pay a pretty penny for such photos, gory or not?

Also, there was that security system the (deceased) principal installed just this year, which utilized a camera pointed at the front door to identify callers before buzzing them in. Was there a video loop? No one has said that I've heard. In fact I haven't heard anything more about that camera since that NPR story I posted here from Friday night.

Also, "Lanza" would have been very conspicuous in his black jungle fatigues and three, count 'em, three guns, the shooting now said to have been accomplished with the Bushmaster rifle. And let's not forget those 300 rounds he fired off. Surely someone would have noticed him entering the school from the street? After all the headquarters of the National Shooting Sports Foundation are just across the road. . .

The Second Most Powerful Gun Lobby in the Country is Located in Newtown, Conn.
Lydia DePillis | The New Republic | December 14, 2012 | 5:07 pm

Just across the highway from Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in a stately white building with an American flag flying out front, is the headquarters of the United States’ premiere industry association for gun retailers. . . .

http://www.tnr.com/blog/plank/111148/th ... un-rights#

[/quote]

[lupercal]

Also, an autopsy report was filed on Lanza's mother, cause of death being Lanza supposedly, but has anyone heard anything about an autopsy on Adam Lanza? Or whatever became of the corpse, which even if lying in a morgue refrigerator somewhere would surely be of interest to some enterprising photographer? And wouldn't some kind of autopsy done to see what was in his stomach, blood, etc?

Autopsy: Nancy Lanza shot four times
December 18th, 2012

CNN's Susan Candiotti has the latest details on Nancy Lanza's autopsy.

http://outfront.blogs.cnn.com/2012/12/1 ... t-4-times/

[compared2what?]

@Mac: Looks to me like most of the witnesses are either dead, or young traumatized children.

How many teachers and other adult employees are there at that school? Did nobody even see how unusually thin the gunman was? Or was the gunman not, in fact unusually thin?

And nobody heard the shots at his mother's house?

He lived in the spacious suburbs. And a lot of people commute to work during the day. So the theoretical odds against shots from a smalli-caliber handgun not being heard by a neighbor two doors down who was listening to NPR while doing the dishes (or whatever) just don't strike me as very obviously prohibitive.

I've spent time not far from there, and grew up in several less ritzy but otherwise very similar tri-state-area towns. You can't hear anything from other people's houses when you're home.

And nobody saw him leaving the house and entering her car heavily-armed and dressed in combat gear?


Again: Spacious suburbs; not many people around;; and even fewer on the street. Plus he didn't have, like, a tactical high-energy laser. He had two handguns and a rifle. It wouldn't be difficult tfor someone o put those in a bag or under a jacket as he walked to and from the car.

Or driving that car heavily-armed and dressed in combat gear?

Honestly, what on earth would there have been to see? He was driving. And wearing army-surplus-type clothing, such as you can't walk two blocks down the street without passing two or three college students doing around here.

Or anyway, I assume that they're college students. They could be armed maniacs. But, you know. As long as they're just walking (or, as the case may be, driving) there's no reason to suppose it in real time.

Or exiting that car and walking up to the school heavily-armed and dressed in combat gear?

That totally might have been noticed by people in the school. But assuming that he didn't pull out the weapons until he started shooting, I doubt that there would have been time for them to do much more than ask themselves, "What the hell is that unexceptionally dressed kid in a mask doing here? Is anybody expecting him?" I mean, it takes seconds to get out of a car and walk to a building like that from its parking lot..

Finding the guy in combat gear, with his mother's guns, dead at the crime scene from what looks like a self inflicted wound all points to him doing it.

Well it would, wouldn't it? If, by contrast, he'd been murdered and then set up (or set up and then murdered), how would it look instead?

That's an interesting question. I'll get back to you on it.

Checking to see if he actually fired the weapons or not should be a simple matter.

It should. But do you think anyone will bother? And if they do, do you think (in this post-legal Age of Spectacular Terror) they'll bother to tell us, and even to publish the evidence?

Yes. Eventually, after completing whatever tests they're doing/talking to people/blah, blah blah, there will be a publicly available report. There has to be, as a matter of fact.

Both people and the press usually lose interest by then, though. So you might have to keep an eye out for it.

[lupercal]

Lastly, on the mysterious corpse of Adam Lanza: cops told students to close their eyes on the way out. Plausible enough, but it gives them a reason for not having seen what may not have been there.

[8bitagent]

Funny how today's mass shooting rampage barely made the news. Why, only four were killed and a cop injured.
http://news.yahoo.com/four-dead-three-p ... nance.html

My friend said this:

Don't you just enjoy how the media always begins their reports with body counts and where each mass killing ranks among previous ones? Ever wonder what the next killer is thinking right now? How can I top that one? Eerily oh so similar to the way sports enthusiasts talk about their scoring leaders for being inducted into their Hall of Fame exhibits. Add to that, how many weapons were used and shots were fired too. Got to make sure we know those statistics too.

[MacCruiskeen]

Thanks, c2w, for a typically courteous and detailed reply.

So far, it appears to be as I thought, then: 1) No one saw or heard Adam Lanza kill his mother, leave the house, drive the car, or enter the school. 2) No witness to the shootings has identified Adam Lanza as the masked gunman. 3) No one has even confirmed that that gunman was dark-haired, very young, or exceptionally thin.

I'm just trying to keep tabs on what we actually know right now, one full week after the massacre.

[compared2what?]

And frankly I've a had a bellyful of this Whydunnit shit.

Then don't read it.

(He was a devil-worshipper / he was entirely insensitive to pain!*/
/ he was "autistic" / his mother was a monster / he was not just any old studious, skinny, hypersensitive, painfully shy, vegan youth, but one of those rare ones who is also an icecold hardassed sharpshootin muthafucka.) Please. Let's first see the evidence that He actually Dunnit at all, if he actually did. As opposed to someone else wearing a mask.

I'd be hard put to say how the last of those is less hypothetical or more responsible than the ones that come before it, really. We're all just speculating about what we've read.

* How amazing that Adam Lanza even managed to reach the age of twenty! And how simply astounding that it took several days (a full week?) for anyone in that tiny town to even mention his extraordinarily rare and extremely dangerous medical condition!

It was in the papers on the 15th, the day after the shooting. The AP story I linked to was from then, actually.

There's more than one kind of heritable congenital analgesia. And the rarest one is genuinely extremely dangerous. But there are only 17 people in the United States who have it. The other ones are dangerous when the kids are little and less so when they're older, for the obvious reasons. Anyway. Long story short: Most people who have any of them live to adulthood, assuming that they survive toddlerhood.

I'm not wedded to the hypothesis that he had such a condition, btw. It just occurred to me by chance. So I shared it.

[lupercal]

So far we have:

* No motive.
* No witnesses.
* No photos.
* No corpse.
* No security video.
* No known experience with firearms.

Looks like an airtight case to me.