Smart and shy Adam Lanza, the lonely schoolboy who turned killer
A student who was 'nice when you knew him' - and whose mother took him target shooting
Adam Lanza was memorably smart and heartbreakingly shy during his years at Newtown High School in Connecticut.
He'd correct people's Latin in ninth and 10th grades, students who knew him recall. By his second year he got into honours English, tackling Of Mice and Men and Catcher in the Rye. While other youths sported T-shirts and backpacks, Lanza showed up every day in button-down shirts, carrying a briefcase.
"It was almost painful to have a conversation with him, because he felt so uncomfortable," recalls Olivia DeVivo, who sat behind him in English. "I spent so much time in my English class wondering what he was thinking."
On Friday, much of the country was engaging in the same exercise - trying to understand what made Lanza carry out this outrage.
In interviews with neighbours and people who grew up with him, no one claimed to know the tall, gangly young man well. Family members told others he had Asperger's syndrome, a mild autism whose sufferers are often brilliant but socially inept.
He joined the technical club at Newtown High School and was seen at shows and assemblies working on the sound and light equipment.