Case Study: Adam Lanza This paper aims to study the background and motivations for the violent act committed by Adam Lanza on December 14, 2012 at the Sandy Hook Elementary School. That day, Lanza, who was 20 years old, shot 20 children and six adults before he killed himself and after shooting his own mother (Stanglin & Bello, 2014). According to the Office of the Child Advocate report (2014), Adam Lazan shot his mother four times with a riffle. Later, he went to Sandy Hook Elementary School and eight minutes later he had killed 20 children within the ages of six and seven, and six staff members including the school principal, psychologist, teachers and teachers’ assistants. Finally, when first responders were arriving to the school he shot himself with a handgun. Such act resulted in the establishment of the Governor’s Sandy Hook Advisory Commission, which provides recommendations in public safety (Shooting at Sandy, 2014). In order to analyze the criminal act and the motivations behind it, first we will …show more content…
However, he was described as a child with creative play skills, who could follow adult directions, and with a good attention span (2014). For this reason, in pre-school he was provided with special education and speech support, and occupational therapy. In late pre-school he was removed from these services because the school believed his condition did not keep him from his abilities to learn. Conversely, his parents did not believe in his ability to learn. They requested an independent evaluation from a hospital and after this Adam was sent back to the special support program (Shooting at Sandy, 2014). Adam presented repetitive behaviors, sensitivity to smells, intolerance to touch and some textures; he hit his head repeatedly, and also did not participate in