Brother tells police suspect had personality disorder

By Pete Yost, Associated Press

Published Friday, Dec. 14, 2012 | 12:13 p.m.

Updated Friday, Dec. 14, 2012 | 3:47 p.m.

WASHINGTON — The suspect in the Connecticut school shootings is Adam Lanza, 20, the son of a teacher at the school where the shootings occurred, a law enforcement official said Friday. A second law enforcement official says the boy's mother, Nancy Lanza, is presumed dead.

Adam Lanza's older brother, Ryan, 24, of Hoboken, N.J., was being questioned by police, said the first official. Earlier, a law enforcement official mistakenly transposed the brothers' first names.

Ryan Lanza has been extremely cooperative during questioning late Friday by law enforcement in New Jersey, said a third law enforcement official who was briefed on the investigation. Ryan Lanza is not believed to have any involvement and is not under arrest or in custody, but investigators were still searching his computers and phone records, said the third official.

Ryan Lanza told law enforcement that his brother was believed to suffer from a personality disorder and be "somewhat autistic" and lived with the mother in Connecticut, the third official added.

All the officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record about the developing criminal investigation.

The first official said Adam Lanza is dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

According to the second official, the suspect drove to the scene of the shootings in his mother's car. Three guns were found at the scene — a Glock and a Sig Sauer, both pistols — and a .223-caliber rifle. The rifle was recovered from the back of a car at the school. The two pistols were recovered from inside the school.

Meanwhile, former Jersey Journal staff writer Brett Wilshe said he has spoken with Ryan Lanza of Hoboken, who told Wilshe the shooter may have had Ryan Lanza's identification.

Ryan Lanza has a Facebook page that posted updates Friday afternoon that read that "it wasn't me" and "I was at work."

One of the officials said earlier Friday that a girlfriend of one of the Lanza brothers and another friend were missing in New Jersey. Subsequently, the third official said police had talked with the girlfriend. One of the friends had to be reached in California, so it took some time.

Associated Press writers Adam Goldman in Washington and Samantha Henry in Newark, N.J., contributed to this report.