Sandy Hook gunman Adam Lanza carried out killings 'as act of revenge after suffering from years of bullying at school'

Friend of Lanza's mother says he harbored resentment towards school

He said Nancy Lanza would sometimes attend school to act as 'bodyguard'

The killer was moved in and out of the school and sometimes taught at home



Killer: Adam Lanza, who shot dead 27 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December

A friend of killer Adam Lanza's mother has said the gunman may have launched his murder spree at Sandy Hook Elementary School as an 'act of revenge' after suffering years of bullying as a student at the Connecticut school.



Family friend Marvin LaFontaine said Lanza, who killed 26 people during one of the worst school shooting in America's history, had been harboring resentment towards the Connecticut school for years.

And he said mother Nancy Lanza was so angered by the school's inability to protect her son, she would sometimes sit in his class to make sure nobody touched him.



He told the New York Daily News : 'I think Adam felt betrayed by the school and this was his act of revenge.'



Mr LaFontaine, who was also Lanza’s Cub Scout leader when he was a young boy, said he was told by the killer's mother that he was picked on at school. He said: 'Adam was an easy target. He was quiet and he would never fight back.'

On December 14, the 20-year-old shot his mother then went on to spray 155 bullets at innocent children and educators during a five-minute, bloody rampage that ended with 20 dead school children and six dead staff members before Lanza shot and killed himself.

Bullied: Lanza family friend Marvin LaFontaine (pictured) says Adam Lanza was bullied throughout his years as a student at Sandy Hook Elementary

Mr. LaFontaine said Lanza's childhood experience of Sandy Hook centered around bullying.

He said this angered his mother, who would sometimes attend the school unannounced to act as a her son's 'bodyguard'.

'Adam didn’t like her showing up,' he said. 'She would sometimes sit in the back of the class and make sure no one would touch him.'



She also moved him in and out of the school and sometimes home schooled him, according to the report.

At the same time, Nancy was amassing an arsenal of weapons at the house, where investigators found more than 1,600 rounds of ammunition, two rifles, a BB gun, a starter’s pistol, nine knives, a 7-foot spear, a bayonet and three samurai swords.

Grief-stricken: Children wait outside Sandy Hook Elementary School in the aftermath of the shooting

Documents released as part of the investigation noted that the avid gun collector mom may also have been facilitating her son's fascination with weapons. The mother and son reportedly 'bonded' during several sessions spent together at a shooting range.

According to the investigation, which is ongoing and may not be complete until June or later, each of the weapons used in the attack was legally licensed to Nancy Lanza. They also found that Adam Lanza possessed articles on other shootings and a holiday card containing a check made out to him for the purchase of a firearm, authored by Nancy Lanza. Despair: Carlee Soto receives the news that her sister, Victoria Soto, a teacher at the school, is dead.



Documents indicate that authorities found Nancy's gun safe open with shotgun shells and numerous boxes of bullets.



A family friend told the Daily News that, in the months leading up to the shooting, Lanza would dress up in military camouflage and target shoot in his basement with a pellet gun.

The family friend said Lanza's dream was to become a Marine like his uncle Jim.

However, a man with mental health issues as marked as Lanza's is all but guaranteed to be turned away from serving in the armed forces.

That may have also contributed to an emotional break in Lanza that led to his killing spree.