The assault rifle used in the Newtown massacre was bought at the same shop that sold a weapon to Connecticut’s last mass murderer, it was revealed yesterday.
Omar Thornton bought Glock and Walther handguns at Riverview Gun Sales in East Windsor before fatally shooting eight people in 2010 at the beer distributor that fired him.
Nancy Lanza went to that store to buy the .223-caliber Bushmaster assault rifle used on Dec. 14 by her son Adam to kill 20 children and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School, according to the Hartford Courant.
“He was a customer there,” a source told The Post of Thornton, who opened fire at Hartford Distributors in Manchester, Conn., after he was canned for stealing beer.
“He did buy some guns there. He had multiple guns registered to him.”
Thornton also purchased weapons at Hoffman’s Gun Center in Newington, the source said.
ATF agents raided Riverview Gun Sales Thursday night after a man was busted for allegedly trying to steal a .50-caliber Bushmaster rifle there, the Courant reported.
Store owner David LaGuercia declined to comment. The alleged thief’s stepmom said he was driven by voices in his head.
“He told me, ‘Voices told me to take them,’ ” Sharon Hodge, 49, recalled of Jordan Marsh, 26, who she said was off his meds.
Detectives are convinced Marsh planned to kill his family and his former coworkers after losing his plumbing job, Hodge said.
“It was said he was coming after his family and co-workers, [detectives] told us,” she said.
The news came the day after Nancy Lanza’s family mourned her death during a private ceremony in New Hampshire.
The family had not yet decided when and where to bury her — or her murderous son.
Her stepsister told The Post yesterday that the mother of the Newtown massacre shooter should be counted among the victims in the atrocity.
“She was definitely a victim,” Paula Keller said.
Keller, of Kingston, NH, admitted she’s still reeling after learning Adam Lanza was behind the elementary-school rampage.
“We were shocked,” she said. “We’re still in shock.”
She hadn’t seen her step-sister in recent years.
“To me, it’s distant but still too close,” she said.
Additional reporting by Jennifer Bain