A call Sandy Hook Elementary School shooter Adam Lanza made to an Oregon radio show in 2011 gives an eerie look into his mental state before his massacre.

The New York Daily News obtained audio from Lanza's call to "Anarchy Radio," an hour-long "anti-civilization" show, that took place almost exactly a year before Lanza killed 20 children and six adults in the Dec. 14, 2012 Sandy Hook shooting.

On the show, Lanza discusses and appears to sympathize with Travis, a chimpanzee who ripped off a woman's nose, hands, lips, and eyelids in Connecticut in 2009. The chimp was domesticated and raised like a human child. Lanza compares the chimp to a mass shooter.

Investigators are aware Lanza reached out to a radio show before the shooting, though they couldn't confirm it was his voice on the recording, a prosecutor told the Daily News. However, two of Lanza's former classmates confirmed to the News that it was his voice.

Lanza used the name "George" when he called into the show, but in online message board postings discussing the radio call, Lanza posted under the username "Smiggles"— which police identified as one of his Internet aliases.

Here's the part of the call where Lanza appears to sympathize with the chimp, Travis: "Travis wasn’t an untamed monster at all. He wasn’t just feigning domestication, he was civilized. He was able to integrate into society."

Lanza notes that Travis acted like a human child by watching TV, enjoying baseball games, using a computer, and eating human foods. He also notes that Travis was taking Xanax. This narrative mirrors Lanza's own life, in which he was an outsider living among people with whom he never quite fit in.

Lanza also talks about Travis' owner, a woman whom the chimp regarded as a mother figure.

"After [the attack], everyone was condemning his owner by saying how irresponsible she was for raising a chimp like it was a child and that she should have known something like this would happen because chimps aren't supposed to be living in civilization, they're supposed to be living in the wild among each other.  … The implication is that nothing would have gone wrong if he was living in civilization as a human."

This is an eerie parallel to what happened after the Sandy Hook shooting.

After Lanza shot and killed his own mother at their home the day of the massacre, many people asked why Lanza's mother Nancy didn't see any red flags and intervene before the shooting.

Lanza continues by pointing out that Travis, much like Lanza himself, didn't exhibit many obvious warning signs before the attack:

"If Travis had been some nasty monster all his life, it would have been widely reported, but to the contrary, it seems like everyone who knew him said how shocked they were that he would be so savage because they knew him as a sweet child. And there were two isolated incidents early in his life when he acted aggressively … he didn't act really any differently than a human child would."

Some people who knew Lanza spoke up after the attack to say he was odd but not openly aggressive. One friend of Nancy's told The Washington Post: "She never mentioned that [Adam] was suicidal or violent. Nothing like that. Everyone that had spent any time around him, they knew he was a little bit different, but you never saw any major, major issues."

In another analysis of the chimp's motives that comes very close to describing Lanza's own life, he says:

"Look what civilization did to him. It had the same effect on him as it does on humans. He was profoundly sick ... and he had to resort to these surrogate activities like watching baseball and looking at pictures on a computer screen and taking Xanax. He was a complete mess. And his attack wasn't simply because he was a senselessly violent, impulsive chimp, which is how his behavior was universally portrayed. ... When his owner's friend arrived, he knew she was trying to coax him back into his life of domestication and he couldn't handle that so he attacked her and anyone else who approached him."

In the months before the shooting, Nancy Lanza told friends she wanted to move out of state with Adam and was encouraging him to get a drivers' license and a job and continue his education.

Lanza posited on why the chimp was behaving so bizarrely before the attack: "Some little thing he experienced was the last straw and he was overwhelmed by the life that he had and he wanted to get out of it."

The whole call is worth a listen:

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NEWTOWN, Conn. (Reuters) - Parents of almost half the young children killed by a gunman at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, two years ago on Sunday have taken initial steps toward filing lawsuits tied to one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history.

For a second straight year the leafy suburb has planned no public events to commemorate the massacre, which left 20 first graders and six educators dead at Sandy Hook Elementary School, an incident that inflamed the U.S. debate over gun control.

The parents of eight of the children killed in the Dec. 14, 2012, carnage, which 20-year-old gunman Adam Lanza ended by shooting himself dead as he heard police sirens approach, have notified Connecticut courts that they may file wrongful death lawsuits in state or federal court.

Their initial court filings, related to legal entities created in memory of their children, do not indicate who the families could target in their lawsuits, according to a chief court clerk for North Fairfield County Probate Court.

While the parents could not be reached for comment, a spokesman for Bridgeport law firm Koskoff, Koskoff and Bieder said that a lawyer at the firm had recently met with some of the Newtown parents about potential suits.

"Attorney Josh Koskoff has met with parents about legal action," said Geraldo Parrilla, a legal assistant with the firm.

While Newtown grabbed the nation's attention, school shootings remain common across the United States. Some 95 incidents, including fatal and nonfatal assaults, suicides and unintentional shootings have taken place across 33 states since Newtown, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, a group created by the merger of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, founded by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, a group founded after the attack.

"It's astounding," said Shannon Watts, who founded the Moms group. "There is no other developed country that would tolerate this kind of gun violence around school age children."

Gun-rights advocates note that the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects the right to bear arms and suggested after the attack that armed guards in schools could avert future violence.

Newtown, located some 78 miles (126 kilometers) northeast of New York City, has razed the school that was site of the attack and recently acquired the home where Lanza lived with his mother, who he shot dead as the first act of his rampage. That building may also be torn down.

Newtown plans no public ceremonies to mark Sunday's anniversary of the shootings.

"The second anniversary, like the first one last year, will be recognized in personal reflection and remembrance,” said Newtown's highest elected official, First Selectman Patricia Llodra, and Superintendent of Schools Joseph Erardi, in a statement ... “There are no formal or official ceremonies to be held by the town or school district."

But a 12-member commission that includes four parents of young victims of the attack is steadily moving ahead to create a permanent memorial to honor the dead.

"We are meeting monthly, but have taken December off out of respect for the families who lost their loves ones on that tragic day," said Kyle Lyddy, chairman of the Sandy Hook Permanent Memorial Commission that is entering its final phase of recommending either a single or multiple memorials.

Lyddy said the panel is considering such proposals as an outdoor park and gardens, and indoor murals and art exhibits. He said the commission has not set a deadline because "Our main goal is to get this right." 

(Additional reporting by Barbara Liston in Orlando, Florida; Editing by Scott Malone and Bernard Orr)

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(Reuters) - The families of two of the 20 students killed in a 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, are suing the town of Newtown, Connecticut and the local school board over alleged lax security, media reported on Monday.

The suit, served by the families of slain Noah Pozner and Jesse Lewis, said the town was negligent for not installing classroom doors that could be locked from the inside or bulletproof glass on the school's front windows, the Hartford Courant newspaper reported.

Adam Lanza, 20, shot dead 20 first-graders and six educators in the attack on Dec. 14, 2012 -- one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history.

The killings prompted a fresh debate on gun rights and last month the families of nine victims sued the maker of the gun that was used, an AR-15 assault weapon manufactured by Bushmaster, saying it should not have been sold to civilians.

After the Sandy Hook shooting, Connecticut's Democratic governor, Dannel Malloy, pushed through one of the strictest gun laws in the United States, banning more than 100 types of military-style rifles and limiting ammunition magazines to 10 bullets.

Town attorney David Grogins confirmed that the suit had been served, but he declined further comment, the newspaper added.

Calls for comment from the school board and Newtown officials were not immediately returned.

(Reporting by Curtis Skinner in San Francisco; Editing by Crispian Balmer)

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MILFORD, Conn. (Reuters) - The families of 14 people killed in the 2012 massacre at Connecticut's Sandy Hook Elementary School, and two survivors reached a $1.5 million legal settlement on Monday against the gunman's mother's estate, according to court records.

The families of victims and two school employees who survived the attack will each receive a $93,750 share of an insurance policy on the Newtown, Connecticut, home where Nancy Lanza lived with her son, gunman Adam Lanza, according to filings at a Bethel, Connecticut, probate court.

The 20-year-old gunman began his rampage on Dec. 14, 2012, by shooting and killing his mother with a Bushmaster AR-15 assault rifle before driving to his former elementary school, where he gunned down 20 first-graders and six educators. He killed himself as police arrived.

A probate court clerk said Monday the settlement must still be approved by Probate Court Judge Joseph Egan.

The claims were made in two separate lawsuits filed against Nancy Lanza's estate. Newtown obtained possession of her home and tore it down this year, leaving it as open space for the near future, town officials said.

Attorney Samuel Starks, the estate's administrator, declined to comment on Monday.

Attorney Joshua Koskoff, who represents some of the plaintiffs, also declined to comment.

Earlier this year he said any monetary award or settlement "serves as an important reminder that people who keep firearms in the home must be scrupulous about securing their weapons."

The lawsuits claim that Nancy Lanza obtained the Bushmaster and kept it in her home, where her son had access to it despite a history of mental health problems.

State police reports indicate the gun was stored in a gun safe that was in a room adjacent to Adam Lanza's bedroom, and that he had "unlimited access to it."

The lawsuits contend Nancy Lanza "knew or should have known that (her son's) mental and emotional condition made him a danger to others." One of the lawsuits stated that while the assault weapon used by Lanza was legally sold in Connecticut, the weapon should not have been available to him. 

(Editing by Scott Malone and Doina Chiacu)

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A middle school teacher in Newtown, Connecticut, was arrested Wednesday on a charge of carrying a gun at school, local police told Business Insider over the phone.

The teacher, Jason M. Adams, had arrived at school with a concealed firearm, police told the The Hartford Courant. 

School security officers detained Adams around 9 a.m.

Adams has a valid pistol permit, though carrying a concealed weapon in school is against state law, per The Hartford Courant. 

Adams was charged with possession of a weapon on school grounds, according to NBC Connecticut. He was released Wednesday afternoon, and is set to appear in court on April 20.

Dave Altimari, a reporter for The Hartford Courant, tweeted that all Newtown schools had a two-hour delayed opening for staff meetings. 

A school in Newtown — Sandy Hook Elementary — was the scene of a devastating school shooting in 2012, where 20 children and six staff members were killed by semiautomatic weapon. 

Here's the Newton school system's statement, per News8:

This matter is very serious and troubling, both the Newtown Public School system and the Newtown Police Department took immediate steps to address the matter. The teacher was immediately detained by security personnel. The teacher has additionally been placed on administrative leave pending an administrative investigation. Both agencies have been working closely together to investigate the incident and are taking precautions to ensure the continued safety of our students, staff and community members.

And the Newton Police Department's statement below:

SEE ALSO: 50 maps that show how guns are trafficked into every state

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NEWTOWN, Conn. (Reuters) - When the children of Newtown, Connecticut, report to the new Sandy Hook Elementary School next month, they will enter a building carefully designed to protect them from the unthinkable.

The $50 million structure replaces the building that a deranged man entered on Dec. 14, 2012, and mowed down 20 children and six educators with assault weapons in one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history. 

While the new school may never erase the pain of that day, officials believe its state-of-the-art safety features will keep the young students of this small Connecticut town safe from any threat.

“We wanted to create a space at the highest levels to honor every victim, every student, every family," said Newtown First Selectwoman Patricia Llodra during a media tour of the school on Friday.

The old school was demolished in 2013, a few months after the killings. Since then, students and faculty have used a vacant school in nearby Monroe while officials planned and built the 86,000-square-foot replacement with state aid. 

The new facility, which will house more than 500 students from pre-K through fourth grade when it opens next month, will retain its predecessor's name.

The school's design was the result of dozens of meetings among Sandy Hook educators, families, community members, architects and builders. Among its special features is a memorial garden built on the site of the two classrooms where the most students and teachers died.

“Our job was to listen,” said Julia McFadden, associate principal of Svigals + Partners, lead architects on the project. “Items like the rain garden created a buffer zone to the school and was a safety feature. Safety features were integrated, but not bluntly obvious.”

School Superintendent Joseph Erardi, who joined the district in 2014, said some of the top school-safety experts in the country reviewed and approved the design.

While school officials declined to point out all of the safety features, some are obvious. Teachers can lock classroom doors and windows from the inside, and key cards are required at entrances and exits throughout the school. Video surveillance is a central part of the overall plan.

The school also integrates many naturalistic features, part of the design team's efforts to mitigate any fear or anxieties that may arise among teachers and students.

About 35 returning students were in kindergarten at the time of the shooting and are now returning as fourth graders. 

For example, a wood facade was completed in uneven waves designed to replicate the hills of Newtown, some 70 hills north of New York City. Foot bridges crossing a stone brook and garden give access to each of the school's three entrances.

The main entrance leads to a courtyard where students and visitors can experience nature through tree-shape murals, expansive windows and two outdoor amphitheaters. Two interior tree-houses give students a natural respite. 

Paintings created by students are part of the overall decorating scheme, including a mural in the school’s colors of green and white that reads “Be Kind.” 

(Editing by Frank McGurty and Leslie Adler)

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MIAMI (AP) — Federal authorities say a Florida woman has been charged with making death threats against the parents of a child who died in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings.

The U.S. Department of Justice announced the charges Wednesday. Its statement said 57-year-old Lucy Richards of Tampa made the threats because she thought the December 2012 shootings in Newton, Connecticut, were a hoax.

The child's parents now live in South Florida. The department didn't release their identities or exact location and didn't return calls seeking more details.

Richards was arrested and charged with four counts of transmitting threats. Each carries a maximum term of five years in prison.

She awaits an initial court appearance Dec. 19. It's not immediately known if she has an attorney.

The Sandy Hook shootings left 20 children and six adults dead.

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• The FBI has released hundreds of pages of documents from its investigation into the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, which killed 20 children and six adults.
• The shooter, Adam Lanza, meticulously planned his attack months in advance, and did not suddenly "snap," according to the documents.
• Authorities found evidence that Lanza was interested in pedophilia, but no proof he acted upon it.
• Lanza, his parents, and his educators contributed to his social isolation by not confronting his problems, another document said.

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — There was evidence the Newtown school shooter had an interest in children that could be categorized as pedophilia, but there was no proof he acted on it, according to FBI documents released Tuesday.

The records were among more than 1,500 pages of documents released by the FBI in connection with its investigation of the December 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, where Adam Lanza killed 20 first-graders and six educators before killing himself as police arrived.

The records also say there was evidence Lanza began contemplating the attack as early as March 2011.

"The shooter did not 'snap,' but instead engaged in careful, methodical planning and preparation," the FBI's behavioral analysis unit wrote. "The shooter was fascinated with past shootings and researched them thoroughly. The shooter shared many similar characteristics and behaviors with other active shooters."

The behavioral analysis unit document did not say what evidence there was that Lanza had a pedophilic interest in children. But another document says an unidentified woman told the FBI that Lanza said adult-child sexual relationships could be "possibly beneficial to both parties."

The woman, who said she had an "online relationship" with Lanza for more than two years before the school shooting, said Lanza did acknowledge that adult-child sexual relationships could be "unhealthy" and did not express any personal sexual interest in children. She said Lanza believed he might be asexual.

She also told the FBI that Lanza compiled a spreadsheet that meticulously documented hundreds of mass murders and spree killings, but she didn't believe he would carry out a mass killing. She said Lanza believed mass murders were a symptom of a broken society and may have believed he was "saving" children from the "harmful influences" of adults during the school shooting.

The documents include reports by FBI agents who interviewed people about Lanza. Portions of many of the documents were redacted, including the people's names.

The documents offer a window into the early days of the investigation, as agents chased false leads and gathered evidence of Lanza's isolation.

A year after the massacre, state police released a final investigative document that concluded Lanza was obsessed with firearms, death and mass shootings but his motive may never be known.

That report also mentioned pedophilia. In it, state investigators said they found on Lanza's computer a file they described as "advocating pedophiles' rights and the liberation of children." They also said they found a screenplay describing a relationship between a 10-year-old boy and a 30-year-old man.

One person told an FBI agent that Lanza's mother, Nancy Lanza, had become concerned about him a month before the shooting because he had become a "shut in" who hadn't gone anywhere in three months. Adam Lanza shot his mother to death in their home before going to the school on Dec. 14, 2012.

The person also told the FBI agent Adam Lanza never accepted he had Asperger's syndrome, a condition on the autism spectrum, and never took medication he was prescribed.

A report by the Connecticut child advocate in 2014 concluded Lanza's autism spectrum disorder and other psychiatric problems didn't cause or lead directly to the massacre. The report said Nancy Lanza rejected psychologists' recommendations her son be medicated and undergo rigorous treatment as a child for anxiety and other conditions. It said Adam Lanza, his parents and his educators contributed to his social isolation by not confronting his problems.

Another person told the FBI that Lanza essentially had become a "recluse" who played video games all day. The person said Lanza had no friends, was computer savvy and became very interested in firearms.

Lanza shot the children and educators with an AR-15-style rifle legally purchased by his mother, who took him to shooting ranges, authorities have said.

A Newtown resident told the FBI that Nancy Lanza said Adam Lanza once hacked into a government computer system and federal authorities showed up at their door.

Nancy Lanza told the person she had to convince the agents he was just very intelligent and was challenging himself to see if he could hack into a government system. She said agents told her if he was that smart he could get a job with their agency someday.

SEE ALSO: A Utah teen helped his friend plan her suicide, tied the noose, and even filmed her do it — now he'll stand trial for murder

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Former chief official White House photographer Pete Souza, author of "Obama: An Intimate Portrait,"describes what it was like to photograph President Obama immediately following the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

Following is a transcript of the video.

Pete Souza: My name is Pete Souza, I was the chief official photographer for President Obama.

To set the scene a little bit, it was about a month since he had been reelected to a second term, so there was that sort of afterglow that was still being felt, I think, throughout the White House. It was also Christmastime at the White House, so there were these decorations and Christmas trees, a very festive time of the year.

And word began to come out that there had been the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, and finally his Homeland Security adviser, John Brennan, came up to the Oval Office. He had gathered all the facts, had talked to the FBI, and told the president that indeed 26 people had been shot, including 20 first-grade kids.

In the picture, you see just kind of the energy just zap out of the president. I think he was thinking of this not only as a president, but imagining what it must be like as a parent. The horror of sending your 6-year-old kid off to school, you put him on the school bus, and you never see them again because some crazy guy shot them to death, point-blank, at their school.

So I think it was a very ... he was very emotional and just thinking about this as a fellow parent, almost more so than as a president.

Not long thereafter he had to go make a statement in the White House press briefing room and it was difficult for him to maintain his emotions as he talked about this. And I think that was probably when he cried for the first time.

President Obama (12/14/12): They had their entire lives ahead of them. Birthdays, graduations, weddings, kids of their own. Among the fallen were also teachers, men and women who devoted their lives to helping our children fulfill their dreams.

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• Former White House photographer Pete Souza captured the moment in 2012 when President Barack Obama learned of the Sandy Hook shooting.
• Souza recently described the moment to Business Insider, reflecting on the way Obama's energy appears to just "zap" out of his body.

Former President Barack Obama has said the worst day of his presidency was December 14, 2012, the day a gunman killed 20 first graders and six adults at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.

Pete Souza, the former chief official White House photographer, captured the powerful moment in the Oval Office when the president received the news from Homeland Security adviser John Brennan. The photo shows Obama leaning against a sofa, his shoulders hunched, arms crossed, and eyes closed as he listens.

"In the picture, you see just kind of the energy just zap out of the president. I think he was thinking of this not only as a president, but imagining what it must be like as a parent," Souza told Business Insider shortly before the five-year anniversary of the shooting.

"The horror of sending your six-year-old kid off to school, you put in on the school bus, and you never see them again because some crazy guy shot them to death, point-blank, at their school."

Shortly after the photo was taken, Obama spoke to reporters in the White House press briefing room in an emotional statement that Souza said was "probably when he cried for the first time."

"This evening, Michelle and I will do what I know every parent in America will do, which is hug our children a little tighter and we'll tell them that we love them, and we'll remind each other how deeply we love one another," Obama said.

"But there are families in Connecticut who cannot do that tonight. And they need all of us right now. In the hard days to come, that community needs us to be at our best as Americans. And I will do everything in my power as President to help."

On Thursday, former White House press secretary Jay Carney also shared his memory of that day on Twitter, calling it his worst day at the White House.

"I saw my normally stoic boss break down," Carney said. "I lost my composure at the briefing. As a parent, I could not comprehend the horror of #SandyHook. I think of those innocent children, and their brave teachers, all the time."

SEE ALSO: The White House photographer has taken more than 2 million photos during Obama's presidency — here are the best

DON'T MISS: White House photographer Pete Souza tells the story behind one of Obama's most iconic photographs visiting injured veterans

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NOW WATCH: Former White House photographer describes what is was like to capture Obama on the worst day of his presidency

On December 12, 2012, 20-year-old Adam Lanza walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, and shot 26 people, including 20 children, after also killing his mother in their home.

News of the massacre reverberated across the country, and elicited a tearful reaction from then-President Barack Obama, who described it as the worst day of his presidency.

Sen. Chris Murphy, who had previously been a representative for the district that included Newtown, was among those present when the families of the victims learned about the fates of their loved ones.

"Obviously, five years is a milestone, and I think it's important that there's some event in the community to remember what happened and to celebrate the lives we lost, but also the lives that have continued," he said on Wednesday ahead of an anniversary gathering with families of the fallen.

In the five years that have passed since that day, many of the parents and families launched foundations in their kid's names to help other children.

Here are all 27 people killed in the deadliest school shooting in US history:

SEE ALSO: 5 years after Sandy Hook, gun control advocates are fed up with the lack of action — so they're running for office themselves

DON'T MISS: Photo captures the exact moment Obama learned of the Sandy Hook shooting

Jessica Rekos, 6, told her mom, Krista Rekos, that morning before she got on the bus how excited she was to sell Girl Scout cookies that January. "She sat in the front seat, looked at me through the window, and smiled and waved as the bus pulled up the hill," Krista wrote. "That was the last time I saw Jessica alive."

Source: Jessica Rekos Foundation

Olivia Engel, 6, was an outgoing girl with "a great sense of humor." She also had a brother who was 3 years old at the time.

Source: Wall Street Journal

Avielle Richman, 6, "was rarely without a giant grin and often barefoot." Her family founded the Avielle Foundation "to fund research exploring the underpinnings of the brain that lead to violent behaviors."

Source: Avielle Foundation

A new book about Adam Lanza and the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting describes how Lanza's mother, Nancy, grew increasingly concerned about her son in the years leading up to the shooting.

Several disturbing details were released in an excerpt of the upcoming book, "Newtown: An American Tragedy," which is due out Dec. 10. The excerpt, published in the New York Daily News, reveals that Adam became increasingly obsessed with the military and had an obvious fascination with death and an aversion to human touch.

We've pulled out some of the new details below:

• Adam had an online gaming persona that significantly differed from his real personality. Under the username "Kaynbred," he was "able to show a bravado and confidence that was unfamiliar to classmates and family who only knew him as an awkward and meek teenager." He fit in well with other players in the online gaming universe.
  
• In the game "Combat Arms," Adam created a military character who used weapons similar to those he used in the Sandy Hook massacre.
• Nancy was concerned about Adam early on in his life. About 10 years ago, she emailed a friend about Adam saying that "parental bonds are formed so early in life ... they are either there or they aren't." She seemed optimistic about being able to shape Adam's future.
• By 2012, she began to frequently leave Adam alone and confided in a friend that she thought it might be "too late" to help him. She went to see family in northern New England for Thanksgiving that year, leaving Adam behind because he didn't want to go.
• Nancy also noted in the weeks before her death that Adam "physically recoiled" when she reached for him.
• Days before the shooting, Nancy told a friend that Adam had become obsessed with joining the Marines. She told him he wasn't cut out for it.
• Adam often dressed in military garb and created an indoor shooting range that he used for target practice with his pellet gun.
• As Nancy grew increasingly worried about Adam, she decided to search his room. Under his bed, she found sketches that showed "gruesome depictions of death" and "images of mutilated corpses." One even showed "a large rolling grassy field lined with the corpses of young children" with faces that were "severely mutilated and couldn’t be recognized."

Adam shot Nancy dead at the home they shared before driving to Sandy Hook to kill 20 students and six adults last year on Dec. 14. Adam committed suicide by a self-inflicted gunshot wound as police were arriving on the scene.

You can read the full excerpt here.

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Police interrogated Ryan Lanza — the older brother of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooter Adam Lanza — for hours after the massacre in Connecticut, according to a new book by New York Daily News reporter Matthew Lysiak.

"Newtown: An American Tragedy" goes on sale Dec. 10 and contains new details about the Dec. 14 shooting.

Police reportedly questioned Ryan for hours in Hoboken, according to the book. They asked him if he knew what Adam did.

When asked about the last time he spoke to Adam, Ryan told police that he hadn't spoken to him in more than a year. When they asked him why the brothers didn't speak to each other anymore, Ryan said Adam is "sick" and "[doesn't] talk to anyone."

"Do you have any idea why he did this?" police asked.

Ryan responded: "No. I don't know him anymore."

Police and media incorrectly identified Ryan Lanza, a then-24-year-old employee at Ernst & Young, as the possible shooter in the chaos that followed the massacre. Adam apparently had Ryan's driver's license on his person at the scene of the shooting.

Once Ryan saw his name on the news in connection with the shootings, he immediately left his Times Square office and headed back to his apartment in New Jersey. On the way, he posted on his private Facebook page: "IT WASN'T ME I WAS AT WORK IT WASN'T ME."

CNN reported Ryan's name more than three hours before issuing a correction on the air.

Ryan got back to his Hoboken apartment at about 3 p.m., and a few minutes later, police handcuffed him and put him in a squad car. They searched his apartment and looked into his phone and computer records.

Adam killed 20 children and six adults before committing suicide in a classroom. He also shot and killed his mother Nancy before leaving his house for Sandy Hook that day.

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The new book "Newtown: An American Tragedy," by former New York Daily News reporter Matthew Lysiak, examines Sandy Hook Elementary School shooter Adam Lanza's life and the events leading up to and following the tragedy.

Lysiak and his publisher granted Business Insider permission to excerpt the section of his book in which Lysiak describes why Adam's mother Nancy decided to pull him out of Newtown High School right before his junior year.

Richard Novia was a mentor to Adam and the school's Tech Club advisor.

But just as it appeared Adam was beginning to slowly adjust to the routine at Newtown High School, right before beginning his junior year, Nancy learned that Richard Novia would be leaving the school. Wary of the rest of the Newtown administration and faculty, Nancy knew the only person she could trust to look out for her troubled son was leaving and decided to take Adam out of the school.

Novia heard the news and pleaded with Nancy to keep Adam in school, believing that removing him could "send him in a tailspin." 

"I told her that Adam was making progress and that taking him out of school could send him in reverse. He had a support network. Without the school, he would fall back into isolation. He would lose all of his interactions. Everything would be stripped from him. He would get worse."

Nancy wouldn’t budge. "If you are not going to be there, I'm taking him out," Nancy told Novia in a phone call. "I don't trust anyone else." Her intense anger at and distrust of the school overwhelmed any arguments to the contrary and she insisted that Adam be taken out.

"She didn’t trust anyone else. She had a lot of anger at the school administration. She was very unhappy with the entire district," said Novia. "Nancy didn’t believe Adam would get the attention he needed without me there."

Novia also noted: "There was just no pleasing Nancy. She wanted Adam watched one hundred percent of the time. She wanted every faculty member to be just as dedicated to her son as she was. She directed her anger at the special ed teacher, the guidance counselor, the administration."

The school had failed her son, Nancy believed. Adam was angry with the school, too. With no social life or friends, school was all he had and now that was gone.

Nancy pulled her son out of Newtown High School after his junior year and enrolled him at Western Connecticut State University, hoping that Adam would thrive in a more adult environment where there would be less chaos. After passing his GED test in the summer of 2008, he took a total of seven classes and earned a 3.26 GPA his first year. He took Website Production, Visual Basic, Data Modeling, American History since 1877, and Introduction to Ethical Theory, a course in which he got a C.

But signs of his mental instability were always present. When asked on his college application to indicate a gender, Adam wrote: "I choose not to answer," followed by the question, "How do you describe yourself?" Even his university ID photo — his brown eyes bulging, his face seemingly devoid of emotion — suggested to some that something about him was off.

Adam always sat alone, toward the back of the class, often wearing a hooded sweatshirt. He never spoke. At Western Connecticut State University, Adam, who was several years younger than his classmates, again didn't fit in. If a classmate greeted him, Adam acted nervous and avoided eye contact. After an Introduction to German class in spring 2009, two girls asked Adam if he wanted to join them for a drink.

"No, I can’t. I’m seventeen," he responded.

Still, Nancy had hopes that her son would excel in a more adult environment and didn’t entertain the possibility of enrolling him back at Newtown High School. "Newtown [school] is dead to me," she told a friend.

Copyright © 2013 by Matthew Lysiak.  From the forthcoming book NEWTOWN: An American Tragedy by Matthew Lysiak to be published by Gallery Books, a Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. Printed by permission.

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A pro-gun control billboard on the Massachusetts Turnpike has been updated to count how many Americans have died from gun violence since the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School a year ago.

The billboard, from the nonprofit group Stop Handgun Violence, estimates that more than 32,000 Americans have died in gun-related incidents in the year since Adam Lanza killed 20 children and 6 adults with a semiautomatic rifle at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn.

A reporter at Boston's PBS and NPR station posted a photo of the billboard on Twitter. It reads: "Assault Weapons Have Stopping Power. Fortunately, So Does Your Vote. We Need A Federal Assault Weapons Ban NOW!"

Stop Handgun Violence has had its 250-by-20 foot billboard in the shadows of Boston's Fenway Park since 1995. Starting in 2011, the billboard showed the number of U.S. gun deaths since the 2010 elections, with the billboard later being updated to include 20 handprints for each of the children murdered at Sandy Hook.

Stop Handgun Violence calculated the number of deaths since Sandy Hook using the Centers for Disease Control's data on the average number of firearm deaths over a 30-year period.

Stop Handgun Violence and other advocates for increased firearms restrictions were frustrated this past April, when proposed laws to increase background checks and ban assault weapons were rejected by the U.S. Senate four months after the Sandy Hook shootings.

SEE ALSO: Authorities Have Released A Detailed Report On The Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting

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The State's Attorney of Danbury, Conn. has released its full report on the Dec. 14, 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school shooting.

Authorities released a summary of their report last month that said investigators weren't able to determine a motive for Adam Lanza's massacre. He killed 20 school children, six adults, and his own mother before shooting himself in the Newtown, Conn. school.

The full report is several thousand pages long and contains additional evidence from the investigation. The case is now closed.

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A report released by Connecticut state police on Friday includes photos of Sandy Hook elementary school from the day of the Dec. 14, 2012 shooting.

The report contains thousands of pages of documents, photos, and videos pertaining to the investigation.

Twenty school children and six adults were killed in the Newtown, Conn. school during the massacre.

Graphic content has been redacted from the report.

This photo shows the exterior of the school, where Adam Lanza shot his way inside.

The shots created a gaping hole in the glass.

The school's playground sits empty.

This photo shows the interior of what looks like a classroom.

Some children hid in bathrooms in an effort to evade the shooter.

This photo shows another room inside the school.

This photo shows administrative offices in the school.

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Sources affiliated with Sandy Hook shooter Adam Lanza told the FBI that he was a vegan recluse who loved to hike and was "weirded out" by Hurricane Sandy, according to new information released Friday.

Connecticut authorities have published documents that describe FBI interviews conducted after the Dec. 14, 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school.

One source told the FBI that Lanza had no friends or associates and didn't use drugs or alcohol:

Another source said Lanza didn't show signs of violence:

This person provided several interesting details about Lanza — the source said he was vegan and that he was taking private classes in Mandarin Chinese. He also reportedly refused to leave his house when Hurricane Sandy hit, forcing his mother to stay there for several days without electricity:

The same source said Adam "had no emotions or feelings":

Lanza also reportedly played the saxophone and wanted to climb every mountain in New Hampshire:

The report does not note which of these claims have been verified.

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A Newtown police officer who responded to the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting described in documents released Friday the grisly scene he found in the school on Dec. 14, 2012.

Adam Lanza killed 20 children, six adults, and his own mother before shooting himself in the school.

The content below is graphic.

The officer described finding Lanza's body, which he described as very small, like the body of a 12-year-old:

Officers sifted through the pile of bodies in one classroom to search for survivors:

The report also describes some of the children who survived the shooting:

The full report is embedded below:

Sandy Hook Shooting: Vanghele Description Of Scene Inside School by Matthew Keys

SEE ALSO: These Eerie Photos Show Sandy Hook Elementary The Day Of Adam Lanza's Massacre

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Investigators found disturbing material on a computer used by Sandy Hook elementary school shooter Adam Lanza, according to recently released results of a police investigation.

The state attorney's full report about the Dec. 14, 2012 massacre was released last week.

One document contains a description of materials found on a computer in the Lanza home. Several files — which investigators believe belonged to Lanza — are related to pedophilia, and dozens of others have violent themes.

A file titled "pbear" contains a document that advocates for pedophiles' rights and the liberation of children, according to the report. "Pbear" is a term that's short for "pedobear," a popular meme on the online message board 4chan. Know Your Meme describes it as a cartoon mascot that is used as a signal when illegal pornographic content has been posted. (The meme is sometimes mistaken as a symbol for pedophiles, but it generally is not.)

Another document titled "Lovebound" contains a screenplay about a relationship between a 10-year-old boy and a 30-year-old man. A file called "babies" contains writings that describe being attacked by babies and efforts to defend against them.

And there's even more strange content:

The computer also contained instant message transcripts from 2010 and 2011 that show Lanza discussing homosexual fantasies. Another document titled "Selfish" describes why females are selfish.

The state's report is thousands of pages long, but investigators still couldn't conclusively determine Lanza's motive for the Newtown, Conn. shooting. Lanza killed 20 children, six adults, and his mother before shooting himself at the school.

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