The FBI released 1,500 documents related to its investigation of Sandy Hook shooter Adam Lanza this week. As I skimmed reports on the new documents, one particular subject of the FBI’s investigation stood out to me.
According to the files, investigators interviewed a woman who was an online friend of Lanza’s for roughly two years before the shooting. Over that time period, the woman recalled gleaning from their interactions some disturbing details of his life, including that Lanza was “singularly focused and obsessed with mass murders and spree killings” and saw school shooters “with respect and understanding.”
Here more important details from CNN’s report on the document:
“The weirdest person online” she said of Lanza, who “devoted almost all of his Internet activity to researching and discussing” mass killings he meticulously documented and viewed as “a symptom caused by a broken society,” according to the roughly 1,500 investigative documents.
The woman told investigators that Lanza was “extremely intelligent” but depressed and cynical, with a negative view of the world.
Lanza’s online posts included screen names that referred to German and Canadian school shooters Tim Kretschmer and Kimveer Gill, according to the woman.
To at least this one online friend, Lanza was a depressed man obsessed with mass murders and respectful of school shooters, who spent the bulk of his Internet time researching and discussing them, even going so far as to use screen names referring to killers.
It’s of course easy for people to disguise their identities on the Internet, and I’m not sure in this particular case how much of his identity Lanza’s online acquiantance would have been able to ascertain. But when someone is exhibiting clear symptoms of mental illness, is fully obsessed with school shootings, and is sympathetic towards mass murderers, that should be enough to compel even the most distant online friend to contact appropriate authorities. Even if the information they’re able to offer is limited and even if they’ve never met the person in real life.
Anonymity is easy on the Internet, and we know it empowers sick people to publicly air some of their disturbing thoughts and ideas before ever taking action. To others in their online orbit, those revelations may seem harmless and distant, given that they’re coming from nothing more than a screen name and avatar, rather than, for instance, a flesh and blood friend they see every day. But in cases like these, Lanza’s hints were clearly long past the point of ignoring.
This is an opportunity to reflect on how all of us can be better aware of warning signs, especially as obvious as they appear to have been in this case, and be more willing to bring those signs to the attention of the right people.
Emily Jashinsky is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
