Sandy Hook school shooter had 'scorn for humanity,' according to newly released documents

A makeshift memorial with crosses for the victims of

The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooter was not only obsessed with mass murder and socially isolated, but he expressed a “scorn for humanity.’’

Those are some of the revelations from the release of more than 1,000 pages of documents seized in the investigation after Adam Lanza massacred 20 children and six educators on Dec. 14, 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut.

Lanza also killed his mother in her sleep before going on his shooting rampage and eventually took his own life.

The documents, unveiled after the Hartford Courant prevailed at the state’s Supreme Court after a five-year legal battle, paint a more detailed picture of Lanza’s disdain for the world and his disturbed state of mind.

They include hundreds of pages of his writings and a spreadsheet with the specifics of 400 incidents of mass violence going back to 1786.

The criminal investigation ended a year after the massacre without determining a motive. Thousands of pages of documents were released at the time, but in a lawsuit brought by the Courant, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled in October that personal belongings of the gunman that had been withheld, including journals, also had to be made public because they were not exempt from open record laws.

The newspaper quotes Lanza as writing, as part of an exchange with a fellow gamer, “I incessantly have nothing other than scorn for humanity. I have been desperate to feel anything positive for someone for my entire life.”

The writings also disclose Lanza’s interest in pedophilia, which he regarded as a form of love, his contempt for overweight people and a long list of grievances that included the feel of a metal door handle, bright lights and his hair touching his older brother’s towel.

Records show Lanza became marginalized starting at an early age, when his developmental speech delays led to frustration over his peers not understanding him. He was later diagnosed with sensory disorder, autism spectrum disorder, anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder. He also had a phobia about germs.

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After his parents separated when Lanza was 9, his mother, Nancy, became increasingly protective of him. Starting in the 10th grade, she kept Lanza at home, where he was surrounded by an arsenal of firearms and spent long hours playing violent video games.

Lanza, who was 20 at the time of the attack, had an aversion to being touched, and he likened visits to the doctor to molestation.

“Honestly, doctors touching my penis when I was a child was worse than it would be if I consented to an adult in a loving relationship with them,” he wrote. “I don't see how I and every child was not raped by doctors: We did not consent to it. We only did it because our parents made us.’’

Mostly, the newly unveiled documents confirm the notion that Lanza was a deeply troubled young man whose detachment from most human contact only increased the rancor that boiled inside him.

“Most of my social contact was through those players,” he wrote to the other gamer. “All of them are typical detestable human beings, and it bred an aura of innumerable negative emotions for me. You were a respite from that.”

Contributing: The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Sandy Hook school shooter had &apos;scorn for humanity,&apos; according to newly released documents