The gunman who carried out the Newtown school massacre was inspired by violent video games — and was trying to outdo a Norwegian mass murderer who killed 77 people, it was reported today.
Adam Lanza believed he was in ghoulish competition with Anders Breivik, who carried out a bloodbath at two locations in July 2011, law enforcement sources told CBS News.
Breivik, a paranoid ultra nationalist, fatally shot 69 people at a summer camp after murdering eight others in downtown Oslo.
Lanza wanted to exceed Breivik’s death toll, according to investigators.
He chose the Sandy Hook (Conn.) Elementary School because it was the “easiest target” with the “largest cluster of people,” two officials who have been briefed about the investigation said.
Lanza saw his victims as characters in a shooting video game and the higher the death toll, the better his “score.”
Investigators said they had found evidence that Lanza was obsessed with Breivik, who posted a bizarre extremists manifesto the day of his attacks.
Sources told CBS that investigators have also uncovered a “trove” of video games from Lanza’s basement.
He is believed to have spent much of his free time in a basement play room, with the windows blacked out, engaged in a kind of target practice on video games.
It was not disclosed which games he played. But Breivik boasted that he trained for his rampage by playing a war-simulation game named “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.”
He said he developed “target acquisition” by practised his aim using a “holographic aiming device” on the game, which he believed was being used to train combat soldiers.
Norwegian prosecutors also said Breivik played “World of Warcraft” an astounding average of six hours and 50 minutes a day for four months while he was preparing his attacks.
The fate of the two mass murderers turned out differently.
Lanza, 20, killed himself after slaying 20 children and six adults before police closed in.
But Breivik surrendered to police and is being held in a Norwegian jail on a 21-year sentence, the longest allowed in his country.
In his manifesto and afterward Breivik said he was inspired by Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, the Knights Templar of the Middle Ages, al Qaeda, “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski, and Japanese “banzai” warriors.
He said he was motivated by fear of an Islamic takeover of Europe, a decline in Western values and the growth of Europe’s left-leaning political parties.
No manifesto or written explanation from Lanza of his rampage has been found.
Before his fatal spree he destroyed the hard drive on his computer, which may have kept some of the records of the games he played and who he played with.
But investigators are believed to be making progress in tracing Lanza’s on-line life.
