A witness to the aftermath of the terrible school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut on December 14th described police cuffing a man in camouflage pants and a dark jacket who was walked past him, and who looked at gathered parents and told them that he wasn’t responsible for the shooting. At the time the witness was interviewed by CBS News, the man he described was not far away. In fact, he was sitting in the front of a police car that was nearby.
Witness: I saw them walk a guy earlier with handcuffs…he walked by us and said he didn’t do it.
Reporter: It was a grown man?
Witness: A grown man, yeah. He’s sitting in the front of the police car over there now. So, I mean…
Reporter: He didn’t have a gun?
Witness: No, I didn’t see any gun…just had him handcuffed and he walked by us and looked into parents’ eyes and said “I didn’t do it”.
Reporter: How was he dressed?
Witness: Camo pants with a dark jacket.
While it’s not unusual that in the chaos of a mass shooting the wrong person might initially be grabbed by police as a suspect and later released, what is unusual is the fact that the man described by the witness apparently was wearing military style clothes just like those worn by the alleged shooter– Adam Lanza– and described by some accounts as the same clothes of the shooter.
From the Sky Valley Chronicle:
“Broadcast reports from the scene say the gunman reportedly walked into the school wearing camouflage pants and opened fire in one room killing the principal and an unknown number of other adults and then moved into to classrooms shooting at students and teachers in those rooms.”
The Telegraph described the man in the camouflage pants and Adam Lanza– (who was wearing black “fatigues”) as being two separate people. This, of course, makes sense since Adam Lanza died in the school, and therefore couldn’t have been the man described in the video above.
“The gunman, wearing black fatigues and a military-style vest, was found dead in a classroom, but it was not clear whether he took his own life or was shot by police.
A second man wearing camouflage trousers was seen being handcuffed. One witness described him shouting: “I didn’t do it.”
“Another person was being held in police custody after he was detained in the woods near the school wearing camouflage pants, CBS reported”.
AL.com, citing Fox News, claimed the man was the shooting suspect’s younger brother, as did other sources.
“2:25 p.m. CST — A FoxNews report said
witnesses said a handcuffed man, dressed in camouflage was led out of a nearby woods by officers who reported to the shooting. The individual is Lanza’s younger brother, according to the Associated Press.”
The link back to the Fox News story, as of this writing, is dead. Most likely this is because at the time the information was posted, Adam Lanza’s older brother Ryan was mistakenly being named as the suspect.
“2:15 p.m. CST — The Associated Press reports: A law enforcement official says the suspect in the Connecticut school shootings is 24-year-old Ryan Lanza and that his younger brother is being held for questioning as a possible second shooter. The law enforcement official said the boys’ mother, Nancy Lanza, works at the school as a teacher. The official also said Ryan Lanza’s girlfriend and another friend are missing in New Jersey.”
Ryan Lanza, who lives in Hoboken NJ, was at work during the shooting. He couldn’t have been the man grabbed from the woods. Adam and Ryan were the only two sons in the family, so the man in the woods couldn’t have been a third “younger brother” either.
The man in the camouflage pants at one point was suspected by police of being a second shooter.
“CBS News reports that a potential second shooter is in custody and that SWAT is now investigating the home of the suspect. Miller reports that authorities have gone into a home connected with the individual in custody after seeing what appeared to be a body inside.
A witness tells WFSB-TV that a second man was taken out of the woods in handcuffs wearing a black jacket and camouflage pants and telling parents on the scene, “I did not do it.”