Even before Adam Lanza was a teenager, it was clear something was very wrong. “The social awkwardness, the uncomfortable anxiety, unable to sleep, stress, unable to concentrate, having a hard time learning, the awkward walk, reduced eye contact,”
his father said. “You could see the changes occurring.”
When he was 13, he was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome which,
according to the American Psychiatric Association, falls under the broad umbrella of autism spectrum disorder. His parents, Peter and Nancy, were relieved.
They finally knew what was wrong with their shy, diffident son who would one day shoot and kill 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. “It was communicated as ‘Adam, this is good news,'”
Peter Lanza told the New Yorker. “This is why you feel this way, and now we can do something about it. ”
After Sandy Hook, Adam Lanza’s autism sparked a fiery debate that still burns today. Drawing any direct causality between his condition and the killings remains controversial. “To imply or suggest that some linkage exists is wrong and is harmful to more than 1.5 million law-abiding, nonviolent and wonderful individuals who live with autism every day,” the Autism Society
said in a statement.
A
new study in the journal Aggression and Violent Behavior will likely fuel the debate even more. It found some mass murderers and serial killers have something in common: autism and head injury. Like Lanza, other killers had an inability to connect socially, spoke in flat monotones, and had emotionless features.
