(AP)
Nancy
‘DUNGEON’: Adam Lanza spent hours playing violent video games, such as “Call of Duty,” in the basement of the home where he shot mom Nancy (inset) before his rampage. (
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For hours on end, alone in his windowless basement den, Adam Lanza studied photos of guns and obliterated virtual victims in violent video games — until the virtual became a reality.
The unhinged Sandy Hook Elementary School gunman was enthralled by blood-splattering, shoot-’em-up electronic games, which he played in the basement of his mother’s spacious $1.6 million home in Newtown, Conn., according to a person familiar with the layout.
Lanza, 20, especially liked “Call of Duty” — a wartime role-playing game where participants use high-powered assault rifles, machine guns and other weapons to slaughter scores of people, according to a published report.
And the basement walls were covered with military- and weaponry-themed posters, said one of the home’s few visitors.
“It was a beautiful house but he lived in the basement. I always thought that was strange,” said plumber Peter Wlasuk, who did work on the house and saw Lanza’s subterranean lair, The Sun newspaper of Britain reported.
“They had one poster of every piece of military equipment the US ever made,” Wlasuk said.
“The kids could tell you about guns they had never seen from the 40s, 50s and 60s,” the plumber said of Lanza and his older brother, Ryan, who had also lived in the basement before moving away for college.
Once Ryan moved out, “Adam then moved down there. The boys were fans of the military. They had posters all over the wall in the basement,” the plumber said.
“The kids who play these games know all about them. I’m not blaming the games for what happened. But they see a picture of a historical gun and say ‘I’ve used that on Call Of Duty.’”
And when the teen did emerge from his dungeon, he was sullen and silent.
He would sit for a haircut about every six weeks — but never speak or look at anyone.
He was always accompanied by his mother, said stylists at the salon in Newtown.
Lanza gunned down 27 people last week, before killing himself.
His first victim was his mother, Nancy, widely described as doting and concerned for her autistic son.
She was shot four times in the head with a .22-caliber rifle, the state medical examiner, H. Wayne Carver, said yesterday.
She was killed in her bed, and was likely asleep when he opened fire, the ME told the Hartford Courant.
The rifle was left at the house.
Lanza stopped coming in for haircuts a few years ago, and employees at the salon thought he had moved away, said stylist Bob Skuba.
“It’s just weird that I actually touched him,” Skuba said.
“I’d tried to joke with him. He wouldn’t even look at me,” the stylist told CNN.
“I wish I would have killed him then,” Skuba said.
“Or he should have killed himself a long time ago. He would have saved us all the trouble,” the stylist said.
“He should have run in front of a bus, or some other type of terrible death. He should have done it to himself. It would have saved all those kids and parents the trouble.
“I should have slit and stabbed him by accident. It would have been a lot better for those people.”
Cutting Adam Lanza’s hair “was a very long half an hour. It was a very uncomfortable situation,” stylist Diane Harty said. She said that she never heard his voice and that Nancy, a divorcee, also hardly spoke.
If a stylist would ask Adam a question, Skuba said, his mother would answer.
“He would just be looking down at the tiles . . . the whole time,” Skuba said.
Divorce paperwork released this week showed that Nancy had the authority to make all decisions regarding Adam’s upbringing. The divorce was finalized in September 2009, when Adam was 17.
A friend said Nancy was overwhelmed.
“It was really hard for her as a single mother. It’s hard enough raising an autistic child, just me and my wife. I couldn’t imagine doing it alone,” said Rich Collins, 54, a Lanza family friend who has an autistic son, Jeffrey, 17.
“I think it’s important to get the part of the story out — that an unmarried woman was trying to raise an autistic child on her own. I think she needed more support.”
The ME told the Courant that he has enlisted a geneticist from the University of Connecticut to aid in the investigation.
“I’m exploring with the department of genetics what might be possible, if anything is possible,” Carver said.
“Is there any identifiable disease associated with this behavior?”
Lanza suffered from Asperger’s syndrome, a high-functioning form of autism not normally associated with violence.