CT - Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings, Newtown, 2012
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SHOOTING AT SANDY HOOK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL REPORT OF THE OFFICE OF THE CHILD ADVOCATE (114 pages)
"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 warning signs, red flags, or other lessons that could be learned from a review of AL’s life. It was not the primary purpose of this investigation to explicitly examine the role of guns in the 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 developmental trajectory and issues of mental illness should not be understood to mean that these issues were considered more important than access to these weapons or that we do not consider such access to 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 opportunities 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 actions and a mass murder. 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 communication amongst professionals charged with the care of children.
Additionally, 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, effective services during critical periods of his life, and it is this story that the report seeks to tell...."
https://www.ct.gov/oca/lib/oca/sandyhook11212014.pdf
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"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 warning signs, red flags, or other lessons that could be learned from a review of AL’s life. It was not the primary purpose of this investigation to explicitly examine the role of guns in the 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 developmental trajectory and issues of mental illness should not be understood to mean that these issues were considered more important than access to these weapons or that we do not consider such access to 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 opportunities 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 actions and a mass murder. 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 communication amongst professionals charged with the care of children.
Additionally, 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, effective services during critical periods of his life, and it is this story that the report seeks to tell...."
https://www.ct.gov/oca/lib/oca/sandyhook11212014.pdf
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YESorNO
The Queen (aka "mrsmuir") SWBB
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Records ban proposed after release of gunman's writings
Mar 5, 2019
"HARTFORD, Conn. — Connecticut prosecutors have launched an effort to ban the public release of documents such as the writings of the Sandy Hook Elementary School gunman, in response to a state Supreme Court ruling that ordered the disclosure of the shooter’s belongings and ended a five-year legal battle.
Under the court’s order, state police in December released to The Hartford Courant hundreds of pages of documents that shed light on Adam Lanza’s anger and obsession with mass murder. The 20-year-old Lanza killed 20 first-graders, six educators and himself at the Newtown school on Dec. 14, 2012, after having killed his mother at their home in the same town.
Chief State’s Attorney Kevin Kane’s office has proposed a bill that would exempt from state freedom of information laws property seized by search warrants without an arrest being made, except if the property is filed or introduced as evidence in court.
The legislature’s Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hold a public hearing on the proposal Wednesday...."
Records ban proposed after release of gunman's writings
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Mar 5, 2019
"HARTFORD, Conn. — Connecticut prosecutors have launched an effort to ban the public release of documents such as the writings of the Sandy Hook Elementary School gunman, in response to a state Supreme Court ruling that ordered the disclosure of the shooter’s belongings and ended a five-year legal battle.
Under the court’s order, state police in December released to The Hartford Courant hundreds of pages of documents that shed light on Adam Lanza’s anger and obsession with mass murder. The 20-year-old Lanza killed 20 first-graders, six educators and himself at the Newtown school on Dec. 14, 2012, after having killed his mother at their home in the same town.
Chief State’s Attorney Kevin Kane’s office has proposed a bill that would exempt from state freedom of information laws property seized by search warrants without an arrest being made, except if the property is filed or introduced as evidence in court.
The legislature’s Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hold a public hearing on the proposal Wednesday...."
Records ban proposed after release of gunman's writings
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doodles1211
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Monday morning, a man whose child was killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was found dead in Newtown.
According to police, 49-year-old Jeremy Richman died of an apparent suicide at Edmond Town Hall, which is a theater and banquet venue on Main Street.
The Newtown Police Department confirmed the death on its Facebook page.
The cause was not released, but police said his death did not appear to be suspicious. ...
Father of Sandy Hook shooting victim found dead
According to police, 49-year-old Jeremy Richman died of an apparent suicide at Edmond Town Hall, which is a theater and banquet venue on Main Street.
The Newtown Police Department confirmed the death on its Facebook page.
The cause was not released, but police said his death did not appear to be suspicious. ...
Father of Sandy Hook shooting victim found dead
KatzEye
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Horribly sad. These school shootings leave such a horrible aftermath for survivors and family members.
Second Parkland school shooting survivor commits suicide this week, police say
Second Parkland school shooting survivor commits suicide this week, police say
cobalt sky
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So two Parkland students and now a Sandy Hook dad have taken their own lives within days of each other. Bizarre. The students iirc died of gunshot wounds, I'm curious as to what the cause of death was for the Sandy Hook dad.
Elisaa444
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This is just profoundly sad. I'm a parent to a kindergartener and I cannot imagine ever living through what the Sandy Hook parents lived through. I drop my daughter off at school every morning and it is always on my mind. I'm thinking about his wife Jennifer and praying for his family fiercely. ^jmo, imo, moo, etc^
Police said Richman has an office in the Edmond Town Hall and is the founder of the Avielle Foundation.
It's mission is to prevent violence and build compassion through neuroscience research, community engagement, and education.
“Mr. Richman was a well spoken, well known advocate of mental health and some of the issues are surrounding the tragedy of Sandy Hook and as a community as a whole we’re shocked," said Newtown Police Chief James Viadero.
The Foundation released a statement on Monday saying "Our hearts are shattered, and our heads are struggling to comprehend. Jeremy was a champion father, husband, neuroscientist and, for the past seven years, a crusader on a mission to help uncover the neurological underpinnings of violence through the Avielle Foundation, which he and his wife, Jennifer Hensel, founded after the death of their daughter, Avielle, at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Jeremy was deeply devoted to supporting research into brain abnormalities that are linked to abnormal behavior and to promoting brain health. Tragically, his death speaks to how insidious and formidable a challenge brain health can be and how critical it is for all of us to seek help for ourselves, our loved ones and anyone who we suspect may be in need. Jeremy’s mission will be carried on by the many who love him, including many who share the heartache and trauma that he has suffered since December 14, 2012. We are crushed to pieces, but this important work will continue, because, as Jeremy would say, we have to. As we did six years ago and now must do again today, we ask both the media and the public to give the family the privacy anyone would deserve to begin to process this tragic development."
Avielle Richman was among the 26 students and staff who were killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012.
Just last week, Richman was a keynote speaker at a summit on violence in Florida.
“We have a really profound epidemic of violence in our country. Violence to self and others," Richman had said in an interview last week.
I wonder if the conspiracy people played a role. He was targeted by them
Exclusive: NRA Official Sought Sandy Hook Hoaxer To Question Parkland Shooting, Emails Show | HuffPost
Exclusive: NRA Official Sought Sandy Hook Hoaxer To Question Parkland Shooting, Emails Show | HuffPost
margarita25
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This is the second day in a row I’m hearing about this. Yesterday I heard about two other victims from another mass shooting iirc that also committed suicide. Will try to remember/find more details so I can link for reference.
( ETA: Suicides In Parkland Leave Community In Shock
The community of Parkland, Fla., is reeling from the news this weekend that two young people took their own lives. On Friday, 19-year-old Sydney Aiello was buried, five days after she killed herself. Aiello was a senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last year at the time of the mass shooting. A day later, on Saturday, another student took his life. He was a current student, a sophomore whom authorities haven't identified.
This is something we recognized was a possibility early on and tried to drive awareness [about]. ... I'm hoping now that as a community, we recognize that the threat is very real.”
Ryan Petty, father of a high school student killed in the Parkland, Fla., mass shooting.”)
D
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Oh, I have some words for that short, squat man spewing crap about Sandy Hook.
In my state, a suicide as a result of bullying can be a murder charge for the one doing the bullying. So, therefore, in my state, there would be three counts of murder by suicide (?) for this scum.
In my state, a suicide as a result of bullying can be a murder charge for the one doing the bullying. So, therefore, in my state, there would be three counts of murder by suicide (?) for this scum.
Legally Bland
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Great (but sad) article on how Jeremy Richman tried to cope with his grief.
RIP Jeremy.
_____________
It took a time to find the address Richman had given me, but when I did so I sat for a little while across the street, taking in the neat painted house and the garden with spring sun falling on its rolling lawn and on the woodland beyond. I needn’t have approached Richman’s front door with any trepidation. He greeted me with a wide smile, holding eye contact, introducing me to his wife Jennifer and their daughter Imogen, then nearly two, before taking me up to the studio room at the top of the house to chat. “People struggle to find a way of talking about what happened to our family,” he said. “But people who kid-glove us quickly learn that is not necessary.”
[...]
While he discussed all this Richman emphasised how the foundation not only borrowed his daughter’s name, but also her spirit; Avielle, who was six when she was killed, was a lover of stories, and a “steadfast friend for anyone she thought in need”. I noted how every time Richman mentioned her name, he made a point of smiling.
He showed me the hill that she sledded down outside, and the woods she had loved to play in, and then he drove me around his regular haunts. We had a coffee in the bagel bakery that Richman had taken Avielle to every Saturday morning; we stopped by the office in the old Town Hall which was home to the foundation; we paused at the fire station where the parents had gathered when news of the tragedy first broke, with its 22 gold stars on its roof, 20 small ones for each child, six larger ones for their teachers. And then we drove up to the hilltop cemetery where Avielle was buried along with several of her classmates, all in a row. At weekends, and during holidays, Richman and the family would come up here with a picnic to spend time with her.
Quite often, since I met Richman, I have found myself dwelling on that afternoon. This was partly due to the fact that he had a gift for storytelling, for offering life lessons. The one I remembered best was a story he told about a visit that he and his wife had made to China when they had first met. They had got involved in a programme to help repatriate kung fu masters who had been exiled during the Cultural Revolution. “We were travelling there with this 80-year-old guy,” he told me, “and he was in crazy good shape. He invited you to punch him as hard as you could and he wouldn’t flinch. One day I asked him, you know, what is your secret? I thought he was going to say: ‘you have to train 10 hours a day’ or whatever. What he actually said was, ‘number one: you have to get together often with your friends. Number two, you have to laugh every day. Number three, you have to sleep well.’”
[...]
I would not begin to speculate what was going through his mind before he made that last decision. As anyone who has even a glancing knowledge of suicide knows, all the act takes for someone dealing with severe trauma is a very bad day or a very bad hour. Richman’s wife, Jennifer, asking for privacy, grief heaped upon grief, noted in a statement: “My champion and the love of my life is the person who had every tool in the toolbox at his disposal … [But] he succumbed to the grief that he could not escape. To parent our children without my champion shatters my heart and I will love my best friend forever.”
Sandy Hook’s tragic legacy: seven years on, a loving father is the latest victim
BBM.
RIP Jeremy.
_____________
It took a time to find the address Richman had given me, but when I did so I sat for a little while across the street, taking in the neat painted house and the garden with spring sun falling on its rolling lawn and on the woodland beyond. I needn’t have approached Richman’s front door with any trepidation. He greeted me with a wide smile, holding eye contact, introducing me to his wife Jennifer and their daughter Imogen, then nearly two, before taking me up to the studio room at the top of the house to chat. “People struggle to find a way of talking about what happened to our family,” he said. “But people who kid-glove us quickly learn that is not necessary.”
[...]
While he discussed all this Richman emphasised how the foundation not only borrowed his daughter’s name, but also her spirit; Avielle, who was six when she was killed, was a lover of stories, and a “steadfast friend for anyone she thought in need”. I noted how every time Richman mentioned her name, he made a point of smiling.
He showed me the hill that she sledded down outside, and the woods she had loved to play in, and then he drove me around his regular haunts. We had a coffee in the bagel bakery that Richman had taken Avielle to every Saturday morning; we stopped by the office in the old Town Hall which was home to the foundation; we paused at the fire station where the parents had gathered when news of the tragedy first broke, with its 22 gold stars on its roof, 20 small ones for each child, six larger ones for their teachers. And then we drove up to the hilltop cemetery where Avielle was buried along with several of her classmates, all in a row. At weekends, and during holidays, Richman and the family would come up here with a picnic to spend time with her.
Quite often, since I met Richman, I have found myself dwelling on that afternoon. This was partly due to the fact that he had a gift for storytelling, for offering life lessons. The one I remembered best was a story he told about a visit that he and his wife had made to China when they had first met. They had got involved in a programme to help repatriate kung fu masters who had been exiled during the Cultural Revolution. “We were travelling there with this 80-year-old guy,” he told me, “and he was in crazy good shape. He invited you to punch him as hard as you could and he wouldn’t flinch. One day I asked him, you know, what is your secret? I thought he was going to say: ‘you have to train 10 hours a day’ or whatever. What he actually said was, ‘number one: you have to get together often with your friends. Number two, you have to laugh every day. Number three, you have to sleep well.’”
[...]
I would not begin to speculate what was going through his mind before he made that last decision. As anyone who has even a glancing knowledge of suicide knows, all the act takes for someone dealing with severe trauma is a very bad day or a very bad hour. Richman’s wife, Jennifer, asking for privacy, grief heaped upon grief, noted in a statement: “My champion and the love of my life is the person who had every tool in the toolbox at his disposal … [But] he succumbed to the grief that he could not escape. To parent our children without my champion shatters my heart and I will love my best friend forever.”
Sandy Hook’s tragic legacy: seven years on, a loving father is the latest victim
BBM.
ilovesleep
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The depth of his anorexia is really interesting to me, as a recovered anorexic. It really messes up your thought process. I wish we knew what his brain damage was like.
In no way am I implying that folks with eating disorders are violent. I just think it's interesting.
In no way am I implying that folks with eating disorders are violent. I just think it's interesting.
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@ilovesleep, continue to protect yourself & your health!!!
Congrats on your healthy decisions, may everyone around you share with you and provide the support you need & deserve.
Congrats on your healthy decisions, may everyone around you share with you and provide the support you need & deserve.
ilovesleep
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Laughing, that's so sweet, thank you very much!!! This comment means the world to me.
