The world may soon learn more about what drove Adam Lanza to carry out one of the most disturbing mass murders in American history. Connecticut's Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that state police have to release journals and documents belonging to Lanza, the 20-year-old who killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012 before shooting himself. According to a police inventory, the disputed items include a spreadsheet ranking mass murders, and a document titled "me" that details "relationships, ideal companion, culture, voting, personal beliefs, describes doctors touching children as rape," the AP reports. Other items include hand-drawn comics and Lanza's educational and medical records.
The items were seized from the home Lanza shared with his mother. He killed her before carrying out the school attack. The court's decision came after years of requests from the Hartford Courant and other news organizations to view the items. "Since the day of the massacre... the Courant has worked to advance the understanding of how so heinous a tragedy could happen and we applaud today’s decision as we feel these documents are necessary for us to tell a complete story in our reporting," says Courant editor-in-chief Andrew Julien. "Understanding what a mass killer was thinking not only paints a clearer picture of the individual, it helps us identify and understand red flags that could be part of a prevention formula for future mass shootings." It's not clear when the items will be released, or whether state authorities will appeal the decision. (Lanza's writings include a story about a granny with a "rifle cane" that he wrote in the fifth grade.)
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