STATEMENT FROM THE AUTHORS

In January, 2013, the Office of the Child Advocate was directed by the Connecticut Child Fatality Review Panel to prepare a report that would focus on Adam Lanza (hereinafter referred to as AL), and include a review of the circumstances that pre-dated his commission of mass murder at Sandy Hook Elementary School. The charge was to develop any recommendations for public health system improvement that emanated from the review. Authors of this report focused on AL’s developmental, educational, and mental health profile over time, the services he received from various community providers, and ultimately his condition prior to his actions on December 14, 2012. Authors looked for any warni ng signs, red flags, or other lessons that coul d be learned from a review of AL’s life. It was no t the pri mary purpose of this investigation to explici tly examin e the ro le of gu ns in th e Sandy Hook shootings. However, the conclusion cannot be avoided that access to guns is relevant to an examination of ways to improve the public health. Access to assault weapons with high capacity magazines did play a major role in this and other mass shootings in recent history. Our emphasis on AL’s developmen tal trajectory and issues of mental illness should not be understood to mean that these issues were conside red more imp ortant than a ccess to these weapons or th at we do no t conside r such access t o be a critical public health issue. It is important to state at the outset that this report is crafted with recognition of the lives lost on December 14, and authors have a deep sense of compassion for the families of the children and adults who were murdered by AL. To honor the terrible loss of life, authors strove to create a comprehensive and candid report that we hope will inform approaches to making other children, families, and communities safer in the future. This report will identify missed opportuniti es in the life of AL. Authors underscore however that only AL was responsible for his murderous actions at Sandy Hook.

There can be no direct line drawn between one entity or person’s actio ns and a m ass m urder.

This report cannot and does not answer the question of “why” AL committed murder. This report focuses on how to identify and assess youth from a very young age, the importance of effective mental health and educational service delivery, and the necessity of cross-system communic ation amongst professionals charged with the care of children. Additionall y, because the work of this report tracks AL from birth to the mass shooting the authors described AL in what appear to be human terms. Authors acknowledge that the telling of AL’s story may be painful for some readers, especially those irrevocably harmed by his terrible actions. However, the report required a review of AL’s life to address interventions and services that could have and should have been delivered over the course of his life. This report does not seek to draw any link between mental illness and violence, or between persons with autism and violence. As stated later in the report, there are millions of individuals with mental illness or developmental challenges in this country and worldwide, and a very small percentage of these individuals will engage in any act of violence, much less violence on a horrific scale. AL was an individual with mental illness and he was an individual who was diagnosed as having Autism Spectrum Disorder. This report outlines

this

story and makes recommendations accordingly. It is vital to note that AL was completely

untreated

in the years before the shooting and did not receive sustained, effect ive services during critical periods of his life, and it is this story that the r eport seeks to tell. .