A report on the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre released Monday details every step Adam Lanza took as he "shot his way" into the school building to carry out the bloody rampage.
The summary report, issued by Connecticut's Division of Criminal Justice and lead investigator, State Attorney Stephen Sedensky III, states that Lanza shot and killed the principal and school psychologist as they responded to calls of a man with a gun in the school.
"The shooter then went into the main office, apparently did not see the staff who were hiding there, and returned to the hallway," the report states.
The report continues:
"After leaving the main office, the shooter then went down the same hallway in which he had just killed two people and entered first grade classrooms 8 and 10, the order in which is unknown. While in those rooms he killed the two adults in each room, fifteen children in classroom 8 and five in classroom 10. All of the killings were done with the Bushmaster rifle. He then took his own life with a single shot from a Glock 20, 10 mm pistol in classroom 10."
The report does not establish a conclusive motive for the Dec. 14, 2012, shooting that left 20 children, six school staff members and the gunman dead. It does, however, highlight Lanza's "preoccupation with mass shootings, in particular the Columbine shootings, and a strong interest in firearms."
Items found within digital evidence seized from Lanza's possessions include:
- Bookmarks pertaining to firearms, military, politics, mass murder, video games, music, books, Army Ranger, computers and programs, ammunition, candy, economic books
- Two videos showing suicide by gunshot
- Commercial movies depicting mass shootings
- The computer game titled “School Shooting” where the player controls a character who enters a school and shoots at students
- Images of the shooter holding a handgun to his head
- Images of the shooter holding a rifle to his head
- Five-second video (dramatization) depicting children being shot
- A spreadsheet listing mass murders by name and information about the incident
- Materials regarding the topic of pedophilia and advocating for rights for pedophiles (not child pornography)
- Large amount of materials relating to Columbine shootings and documents on mass murders
The report also states that authorities recovered a New York Times article from February 18, 2008, regarding the school shooting at Northern Illinois University and photocopied newspaper articles from 1891 pertaining to the shooting of school children.
Authorities found Lanza "dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head," according to the report. He was wearing nearly all black and had a yellow earplug in each ear.
Monday's release is only a partial collection of evidence contained in a several thousand-page file belonging to the Connecticut State Police, according to the Associated Press. Sendensky wouldn't say why the full evidence file is being withheld from the public. Previously, police have cited consideration for victims' families and the sheer size of the investigation as reasons for keeping the file private.
Critics say that withholding information demonstrates the secrecy of the state's investigation.
"What I found troubling about the approach of the state's attorney is that from my perspective, [Sedensky] seems to have forgotten his job is to represent the state of Connecticut," Dan Klau, a Hartford attroney, told the AP. "His conduct in many instances has seemed more akin to an attorney in private practice representing Sandy Hook families."
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story stated the date of the Sandy Hook shooting as December 12. This has been corrected to reflect that the shooting was in fact on December 14, 2012.