Nancy Lanza, Gunman's Mother, Wasn't a Teacher at Sandy Hook?
There are new reports that Nancy Lanza, the mother of alleged gunman Adam Lanza, may not have been a teacher at Sandy Hook Elementary School where 26 people were killed Friday.
As details are slow to emerge, and with the Connecticut State Police having provided little information about the shooter, media had initially identified the gunman as Ryan Lanza and the mother as a kindergarten teacher at the Newtown, Conn., school. But law enforcement sources confirmed to The Associated Press that the gunman was Ryan's younger brother, Adam. And the gunman's mother is now being reported by some as having no connection to the school.
"No one has heard of her," Lillian Bittman, a former school board official, told The Wall Street Journal. "Teachers don't know her."
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The Sandy Hook school staff directory, available online, does not list a Nancy Lanza. Investigators have not been able to find a connection between Nancy Lanza and the school.
While victims' names have yet to be released, the mother is said to be among the deceased. A woman was found dead at a secondary crime scene.
Current media reports indicate that Adam Lanza, 20, shot his mother at home, drove her car to Sandy Hook Elementary School and gunned down students and staff in two classrooms around 9:30 a.m. He then turned the gun on himself.
Twenty children and six adults were killed at the school.
Connecticut State Police Lt. Paul Vance said Saturday that investigators have assembled "some very good evidence" that would explain a possible motive.
"The detectives will certainly analyze everything and put a complete picture together of the evidence that they did obtain, and we're hopeful that it will paint a complete picture as to how and why this entire unfortunate incidence occurred," said Vance.
A source told CNN that Lanza had some kind of altercation with four adults at Sandy Hook the day before the shooting. Three of those adults were killed.
AP has described Adam Lanza as an honors student who may have suffered from a personality disorder. He and his mother, a gun collector, lived in a prosperous community. Nancy and the father, Peter, divorced in 2009.
Counseling services are being offered at the Reed Intermediate School Gymnasium Saturday.
