Mourning absent for shooter's mother

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Nancy Lanza: shot in head by son

When many people in Newtown, Conn., count the victims in last week's massacre, they tally 20 children in Sandy Hook Elementary School, plus six adult faculty and staff members. Few count shooter Adam Lanza's first victim: his mother, Nancy. Police said before he attacked the schoolhouse, Lanza pumped four bullets into his mother's head as she lay in bed.

As this heartbroken town tries to process last Friday's horror, there is considerable anger toward Lanza's mother. Her name is noticeably absent from many of the impromptu shrines, memorials and condolence notes placed around town.

At the foot of the street leading to Sandy Hook Elementary, 26 Christmas trees stand to honour the dead at the school, each bearing the name of a victim, but no Nancy Lanza.

Outside the Newtown Convenience and Deli in the town centre, 26 small plastic Christmas trees with twinkling blue and purple lights stand next to a sign that reads, "In loving memory of the Sandy Hook victims."

The University of Connecticut honoured the shooting victims Monday with a ceremony before a men's basketball game, with 26 students standing at centre court holding lighted candles.

"I am feeling that there is more anger toward the mother than there is toward the son," said Lisa Sheridan, a Newtown parent.

"Why would a woman who had a son like this, who clearly had serious issues, keep assault rifles in the house and teach him how to shoot them?" she asked. "To deal with that, there's a feeling here that we're just going to focus on the 26 innocent people who died at the school."

Nancy Lanza apparently broke no laws and suffered a violent, tragic death. People who knew her -- those who played in her regular dice game and those who saw her at her regular restaurant -- said she was devoted to her son and kind and generous to others. They see her as a victim like any of the others.

But for some, how to refer to her -- and what to think of her -- is a subject of much conversation. While there are some who call her the first victim, many feel she bears at least some of the blame.

"Maybe somewhere there is a deep thought that the shooter's mother could be responsible for leaving the guns available," said Himansu Patel, the Newtown Convenience and Deli owner, who decided to leave Nancy Lanza out of his memorial to the victims.

"How could he reach those guns?" Patel said. "If she had kept them in a safer place, this thing might not have happened."

Police have not said where they believe Lanza stored her guns or how her son gained access to them.

Much remains unknown about Adam Lanza and his mother. But everyone here knows Nancy Lanza, 52, was the legally registered owner of the powerful .223-caliber, military-style Bushmaster rifle that was used in the nation's second-deadliest mass shooting. And they have heard federal investigators have determined mother and son visited numerous shooting ranges together.

It is also known Adam Lanza had psychological or emotional problems that made the most basic elements of daily life -- such as school and social settings -- challenging for him. The state medical examiner said he had been advised Adam had Asperger's syndrome, a developmental disorder that is not associated with violence.

Those facts have left questions hanging over Newtown. Did Nancy Lanza do enough to keep her guns out of her son's hands? Should she have helped a young man with psychological problems learn how to shoot?

H. Wayne Carver II, the state's chief medical examiner, said Nancy Lanza's body, and her son's, were not claimed until Tuesday, four days after the killings. He said the funeral home that claimed them asked not to be identified and planned to transport them "discreetly."

-- The Washington Post

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition December 21, 2012 A20