Sources told CBS News Lanza saw himself as being in direct competition with Anders Breivik, a Norwegian man who killed 77 people in July 2011. (ODD ANDERSEN/AFP/GettyImages)
Newtown, Conn. (CBS HARTFORD) – Law enforcement sources say that Newtown gunman Adam Lanza believed he was in direct competition with Norwegian mass-shooter Anders Breivik, CBS News reports.
Two law enforcement officials who have been briefed in the Newtown investigations said that 20-year-old Lanza was motivated by violent video games and a goal of killing more “easiest targets” than the 77 people killed by Breivik near Oslo in July 2011.
Lanza — who fatally shot 20 children and six adult staff members on Dec. 14 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in the village of Sandy Hook in Newtown – is reported to have acted out video game fantasies by killing people to achieve a higher “score” of victims’ deaths.
The law enforcement sources said they’ve discovered a “trove” of video games from Lanza’s basement. He reportedly spent countless hours alone in his private gaming room with his windows blacked out to outside light.
Lanza was motivated to top Breivik’s death toll and targeted the Sandy Hook Elementary School because he could find the “largest cluster of people” who were the “easiest targets.”
The three guns used in the Sandy Hook massacre were all firearms registered to his mother, Nancy Lanza – who he murdered with a fourth weapon on the day of the attacks.
