Sandy Hook killer tried to emulate Norway massacre

Sandy Hook Elementary school gunman Adam Lanza may have been motivated by a horrific 2011 mass shooting in Norway as the 20yearold plotted his own massacre Law enforcement officials investigating Lanzarsquos tragic December shooting in Newtown Connecticut that left 20 children and six educators dead at the school said that Lanza saw himself as a competitor to Anders Breivik the Norwegian man who killed 77 people in series of attacks in 2011 in a sick imagined massmurder contest Copycat A new report suggests that Adam Lanza meant to top the number of murders committed by massmurderer Anders Breivik in 2011 They also used Americanmade rifles for their attacks and shared a love for video games File Pics Two officials said evidence had been uncovered suggesting that Lanza was determined to top Breivikrsquos death count The officials added that investigators had found credible evidence that Lanza was probably even obsessed with Breivik They also found evidence that Lanza had zeroed in on Sandy Hook Elementary School because he felt it was the ldquoeasiest targetrdquo with the ldquolargest cluster of peoplerdquo Both killers also used Americanmade 223caliber assault rifles Breivik armed himself with a Ruger Mini14 rifle Lanza used a Bushmaster AR15 On July 22 2011 Breivik detonated a car bomb and then opened fire at a youth camp killing 69 people He then surrendered to police when they arrived at the camp and in August was sentenced to 10 to 21 years in prison the longest allowed under the law During his own massacre Lanza who may have been mimicking a gory scenario in one of the violent games he loved to play may have gone on to kill even more people but he turned one of his guns on himself as police closed in on the school The troubled 20yearold has been described by family friends as a lonely young man who isolated himself in his bedroom for hours sometimes days playing graphically violent video games However a spokesman for the Connecticut State Police dismissed the report calling it speculation ldquoItrsquos inaccurate said Lt Paul Vance ldquoWe are dealing with a deceased shooter and trying to rebuild historyrdquo Vance however did not dismiss the notion that investigators may have looked at the Norway shooting ldquoWersquoll look at everythingrdquo Vance said ldquoOne thing leads to anotherrdquo The Norway Massacre Breivik a 33yearold Norwegian on a mission to expel Muslims from Europe set off a car bomb that killed eight people outside government headquarters in Oslo July 22 2011 He then killed 69 others in a shooting rampage on Utoeya island where young members of the governing Labor Party had gathered for their annual summer camp During his case in court Breivik said he acted out of ldquogoodness not evilrdquo to prevent a wider civil war Breivik vowed ldquoI would have done it againrdquo He compared his attacks to the US dropping atomic bombs on Japan during World War II ldquoThey did it for something good to prevent further warrdquo Breivik said He denies criminal guilt saying he was acting in selfdefence and claims the targets were part of a conspiracy to ldquodeconstructrdquo Norwayrsquos cultural identity