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Adam
The father of the man who massacred 20 first-graders and six educators at a Connecticut elementary school has quietly claimed his son’s body.
Peter Lanza claimed the remains of his 20-year-old son, Adam, on Thursday, a family spokesman said yesterday.
The spokesman said private arrangements took place over the weekend, but he declined to provide details about whether Adam Lanza was buried or cremated.
James Fox, a professor of criminology at Northeastern University and an expert on mass shootings, told ABC News yesterday that when there are burials of killers in such horrific cases, “the grave is not marked because the family is afraid the grave will be defaced.”
Adam Lanza took his own life in a classroom at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown on Dec. 14 after a morning of slaughter that started when he shot his mom, Nancy Lanza, as she slept in the suburban home they shared.
He then shot his way into the school armed with his mom’s Bushmaster AR-15 assault rifle and two semiautomatic handguns and slaughtered the 26 innocents in a killing spree that broke the community’s heart, shook the nation and led to calls for stepped-up gun-control measures.
Police have not given a motive for the mass shooting.
Peter Lanza lives in Stamford and was divorced from Adam’s mother.
Meanwhile yesterday, Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen said that while he sympathizes with families affected by the Newtown massacre, the state isn’t liable for the harm inflicted.
Jepsen responded to an attorney’s request last week to state Claims Commissioner J. Paul Vance Jr. to sue Connecticut for $100 million on behalf of a 6-year-old survivor.
Jepsen said families and children affected “deserve a thoughtful and deliberate examination” of the tragedy and appropriate public- policy responses. But he said the Office of the Claims Commissioner isn’t the appropriate venue.
Attorney Irving Pinksy says his request is about school safety. He said his client sustained “emotional and psychological trauma and injury” in the attack. Lanza killed 20 children and six adults, then killed himself. He also killed his mother at home.With AP