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Nancy Grace

Who Was the Connecticut Elementary School Shooter?

Aired December 17, 2012 - 20:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The grief, the heartbreaking good-byes to some of the youngest victims in Newtown, Connecticut.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She was truly selfless. She would not hesitate to think to save anyone else before herself, and especially children.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don`t think it will ever be a full recovery.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The tragedy here in Connecticut, it has many Americans debating gun laws.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She did have guns, which she used very responsibly.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think the only reason why Nancy may have had them was for self-defense and no other reason.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They do have evidence that he went to a shooting range in this area, that also, she went several times to a shooting range in this area.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Every single facet of the weapons will be analyzed. Every single round of ammunition will be looked at and examined for any kind of physical evidence.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Smashed-up computers were found and grabbed from the home where the gunman lived.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The individual that I have on the phone is continuing to hear what he believes to be gunfire.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`m hearing the gunfire in the hallway, and I`m thinking in my mind, I`m the first classroom. Why isn`t he coming? You know, I`m thinking, We`re next. And you know, and in my mind, I`m thinking, you know, as -- as a 6-year-old, 7-year-old, what are you -- what are your thoughts? What are your -- you know, and I`m thinking that I have to almost be their parent. Like, I have to tell them...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NANCY GRACE, HOST: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us.

Breaking news tonight. To Newtown, Connecticut. The nation remaining in shock after a crazed gunman dressed head to toe in black goes on a deadly rampage at the local K through 4 elementary school, leaving 24 dead, most of them little children.

Bombshell tonight. We learn the shooter`s mother, Nancy Lanza, doting on her son, and he repays her by fatally blasting her four times in the head and face, killing 26 others with a gun she taught him to use, in the days leading up to the rampage, his mom focused on helping her troubled but brilliant son, helping plan his move to engineering school, Mom ready to move with him, a mother devoted to a son, devoting her life to him, her son described as, quote, "near genius."

We also learn, though, she was tortured, upset he wouldn`t let her hug him or show love, even trying to forge a bond with him, taking him to a nearby shooting range, gun training that turned deadly when he shoots his own mother -- she`s in bed wearing PJs -- four times in the head and face there in their $1.6 million home, then grabbing her black Honda, headed to the nearby elementary school to unleash a slaughter.

We are taking your calls. Straight out to the scene, Rita Cosby standing by. Rita, what`s the latest?

RITA COSBY, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: Well, the latest is -- and I`m, in fact, standing in front of the shooter`s home, where authorities were here just a few hours ago, Nancy. They rushed in here. It looks like they are looking for something. This is still a crime scene.

And as you point out, the new information is -- and this is also on public record -- the ATF -- this is the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms -- is saying that both the shooter and the mother went to gun ranges, that they went to gun ranges together, firing in this area.

And also, friends of the gunman are also telling me -- and these are people who know the father and also the mother, but mostly the mother -- say that the mother was saying it would help build his self-confidence, build his self-esteem, and she was actually teaching him to use these guns. Of course, she had no idea that he was going to use one to murder her.

GRACE: To Steven Kalb, reporter with Connecticut Radio Network. Steven, thank you for being with us. What can you tell me about these smashed-up computers that were taken out of the home? And is it true the mom was in bed, apparently asleep, wearing her pajamas when she was shot four times in the face and head point-blank range?

STEVEN KALB, CONNECTICUT RADIO NETWORK (via telephone): First time -- first part, on the computers, the state police, according to Lieutenant Paul Vance, said they have taken them back to try and put them back together again. The hard drives were apparently broken. So they`re trying to see if they can somehow separate out the pieces that don`t work from the pieces that do and try and get them to work properly so they can see what Adam Lanza actually was looking at and playing on, and if he was playing any video games, and if so, what.

As to the mother being shot -- I had heard she had been shot once. There are different versions as to how many times she was shot. But all of them are that she was in bed, and some have them (ph) asleep -- and that`s about where we are.

GRACE: Well, you know, we`re getting floods of e-mails and phone calls about stopping video games. Look, I`m not crazy about video games, but apparently, the video game that he was obsessed with was something called Dance Dance Revolution, all right? So I don`t know how much playing video games had to do with the shooting. Of course, that is ongoing. That computer was smashed to bits, presumably by the shooter.

Joining me right now the, mayor of Danbury, Connecticut, who knew both the principal and a teacher killed in the shooting. Joining me is Mark Boughton. Mark, thank you for being with us.

MARK BOUGHTON, MAYOR OF DANBURY, CONNECTICUT: Well, thank you for having me.

GRACE: Mark, describe the shooting victims that you knew for us.

BOUGHTON: Well, Dawn Hochsprung was a dedicated professional educator. She worked in the Danbury public school system starting in 1998. I actually was a teacher. She came in as an assistant principal. We worked in different buildings, but we did cross paths from time to time, just an excellent, motivated, passionate person that cared about the kids.

And you know, when we heard the stories about her bravery and her heroism, it didn`t surprise me. She understood that her primary function, as any teacher or administrator is, is the health, safety, and general welfare of the kids that she works for. And to put herself between that gunman and those kids is perfectly in character and exactly something I would expect her to do. She was just a wonderful person and she will be missed.

GRACE: And Mark...

(CROSSTALK)

BOUGHTON: ... as far as Laura...

GRACE: ... as well.

BOUGHTON: That`s correct, and a grandmother. And you know, she loved kids and she was engaged by the learning process. And she wasn`t a 180-day teacher or educator. She was a year-round learner, a year-round educator that really dedicated her life to improving the lives of others. And that`s really what our teachers are all about.

The other victim, Lauren, had just received, really, her first teaching job. It was a six-week long-term sub job for somebody who went on, I believe, on maternity leave. But it was something that she dreamed of, becoming a teacher. She was having one of the best years of her life and she was incredibly happy having an opportunity to impact the lives of young people.

GRACE: With me is Mayor Mark Boughton, the mayor of Danbury, Connecticut, trying to deal with what has gone down in their midst, pure evil unleashed on an elementary school, children K through 4, the very youngest of all.

And tonight, disturbing details emerging about the life of the shooter and a mother that devoted her life to him and was repaid in blood.

Joining me also tonight is a special guest, Richard Novia. He`s the former director of security at the Newtown Board of Education. He knew not only the shooter but the shooter`s mother, Nancy, as well.

Richard, thank you so much for being with us.

RICHARD NOVIA, FMR. DIR. OF SECURITY, NEWTOWN BOARD OF EDUCATION: Thank you.

GRACE: You know, Richard, I keep hearing all these reports swirling around that the mother was hoarding an arsenal of weapons, that she was preparing for an economic disaster, and you know, a survivalist of sorts.

Yet I`m hearing other stories of restaurants, a particular restaurant that she would come into where she was a perfectly lovely lady that would carry on conversations about gardening and her sons and trying to learn target practice and taking her son, Adam, that we are referring to as the shooter, to target practice to build a bond with him.

As to the son, we`re hearing -- Richard, we`re hearing that he was severely autistic, that he didn`t fit in, but yet I know he`s been described as, quote, "near genius." He was already taking college classes at age 16. So that doesn`t fit in with what we`re hearing.

You know them both. Tell us.

NOVIA: Well, some correction. I knew them years ago...

GRACE: Right.

NOVIA: (INAUDIBLE) about four. I do hear what you`re saying, and I`ve heard some of those reports about the game, that they played was better described as World of Warcraft.

As far as Nancy Lanza, owning guns shocks me. But life does change. When I knew her, I would have had an entirely different opinion of her, much different than we have today coming out. I can`t envision her owning guns.

GRACE: And what would that be?

NOVIA: She was a great mother. She was a doting mother. She was very much involved with her sons on a daily, weekly level. She was involved in their educational processes. She was involved in their student activities. We often did, as reported, tech club activities. She would arrive, take part in those activities with her sons.

So you`re right, it`s hard to imagine that a mother of her caliber would die in the way she did.

GRACE: You know, another thing we have learned, Richard, is that she was trying to form a bond with him because he wouldn`t let her hug him the older that he got, on up into his teens. And she told somebody at this restaurant where she would go -- she would take the boys there to breakfast quite often when they were younger.

She said she was afraid she was, quote, "losing him," that he didn`t seem to feel anything. He didn`t even feel pain, for instance. What do you know about that, if anything?

NOVIA: I communicated with Mrs. Lanza often about Adam`s care. That`s consistent information. If she was saying that she was losing him recently, that would be nothing new to me. She may not have verbalized on losing him, but that`s not hard to do.

He was a student that was difficult to reach in the first place. He would withdraw into his own little world, have little episodes of these things where he could not speak or talk or communicate even what he was feeling, where she would respond to this -- she would be called to the school and he`d have to be cared for.

GRACE: Everyone, with me and taking your calls is the former director of security at Newtown Board of Education, Richard Novia.

But right now, I want to stop everything and I want to remember these children, these child victims, this from ABC`s "GMA."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: These are the faces of innocence, 12 bright-eyed girls and eight boys who had so much living left to do. Six-year-old Emilie Parker was a big sister. She loved to draw and always carried her markers and pencils. Her father was teaching her to speak Portuguese.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The strength that she gave us and the example that she showed us is remarkable. She is an incredible person, and I`m so blessed to be her dad.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Noah Pozner and his twin sister celebrated their twin birthday last night. She survived the shooting, but little Noah did not. The family of 7-year-old Grace McDonnell tells ABC News, "Our daughter Grace was the love and light of our family. Words can not adequately express our sense of loss."

Six-year-old Ana Marquez-Greene had just moved to Newtown from Canada. Here she is singing and playing the piano with her brother.

Catherine Hubbard was 6 years old and the niece of an ABC employee. Her family said in a statement Saturday, "We ask that you continue to pray for us and the other families who have experienced loss in this tragedy."

The family of 6-year-old Olivia Engel tells ABC News, "She loved school and was very good at math and reading. Her physical loss will be felt every day by those who loved her most. But her sparkly spirit will live on."

Six-year-old Jesse Lewis was looking forward to making gingerbread houses in class that day. His father planned to join him.

And then there was 6-year-old Jessica Rekos, whose parents, Crista (ph) and Richard, told me they wanted to create happy memories for their children in this community like they had.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Jessica had such pride going to Sandy Hook school, knowing that her dad went there, too. And she would just run around the house singing the Sandy Hook school song.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Investigators officially identified Adam Lanza as the shooter.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If it was behavior, if it was learning disabilities, I really don`t know. But he was a very, very bright boy. He was smart.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hearing a loud popping noise, I mean, just something I`ve never heard in my life.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have no doubt in my mind she did everything she could to protect every single one of them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This appears to have become the heart of this Newtown community.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Huge memorial filled with bouquets of flowers, candles, lots of messages to the children and adults who lost their lives.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: We are live and taking your calls.

Out to Ellie Jostad. Ellie, what can you tell me about the shooter? I know that he was finally taken out of school and home-schooled, I guess, in his sophomore year. But he was already taking college courses and was making, what, a 3.2 in college?

ELLIE JOSTAD, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Yes, that`s right, Nancy, 3.26 actually. He was taking classes starting at age 16 at Western Connecticut University. They said that, you know, he did very well.

He got As, dropped a German class that he was apparently having some difficulty in. But his mother was reportedly working on finding a school that he could attend for more education, possibly in engineering, and that the family was actually planning to move, according to what Nancy Lanza told some of her friends, that this was going to be the last winter in Connecticut, and then she and Adam were planning to move out of state.

GRACE: And it`s my understanding that she wasn`t going to move and move in with him in college, that she was going to move to the same town to be there for him and just leave her whole life there in Newtown and move just so she could help him, right?

JOSTAD: Yes, that`s right, Nancy. You know, all the friends that have been speaking to media say that this was a mother whose utmost concern was taking care of her son, the shooter`s, needs and that she would do anything to accommodate him and get him what he needed.

GRACE: Out to the lines. Elaine In Massachusetts. Hi, Elaine. What`s your question?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. The day that this happened, I was talking to my son-in-law, who`s a Massachusetts state trooper. And he actually was saying the only thing we can do is lock our children in, just like a prison, to protect them.

What do you think we should do? As I`m talking to him, my daughter comes home from work, grabs her 5-year-old daughter and just bursts into tears. What do you think we should do? What can we do?

GRACE: Well, I got to tell you something, Elaine. When I heard what had happened, I went straight to where my children were playing and got them and put them in the car and carried them home because I just left work, everything. So I know how she felt.

You know, I`m going to go back to you, Richard Novia. You`re the former director of security there at Newtown Board of Education. You knew both Lanza and his mother. What more can you do? I mean, this school had the magnetic doors where they locked the doors at a certain time. He got in anyway.

NOVIA: Well, it depends on how determined you are to get into a facility. And the security that`s in place -- this was easily overwhelmed.

GRACE: Also with me, everybody, Harold Houck, former NYPD, now with Houck Consulting. What can be done? What`s an answer?

HAROLD HOUCK, FMR. NYPD DETECTIVE: Well, there`s many different things you do. It looks like they were doing a lot of the right things here. Their lockdown procedure looked pretty good, but you need to tweak that just a little bit.

GRACE: Like what?

HOUCK: Well, basically, the shooter did get inside the front door. He shot his way into the class. Now, there could have been maybe some ballistic film on that glass so that it couldn`t happen, or maybe they could put on some type of -- some bars there, just so that even if he shot the glass out, he wouldn`t have been able to scooch in there and he would have been stuck outside.

GRACE: You know, Harold, I hate that that`s where we are because, I mean, when I went to elementary school, I could just walk out the door and walk home, walk all the way home. It`s not like that anymore.

Now, this school had security measures in place. They all did the right thing. And a lot of heroes saved children.

HOUCK: No doubt of that.

GRACE: So I don`t think there`s really a whole lot this school could have done differently. But you`re saying there are measures from here going forward that can be done like the ones you mentioned. What else?

HOUCK: Well, you know, we can improve on the procedures, also, maybe a little bit. I would like to see in every school a specific alarm that goes directly to the police department that there`s an active shooter incident occurring. And that alarm at the same time would go off in the school, and that alarm would be accessible to anybody in the school so they could turn it off, and then there would be an emergency lockdown inside the school.

These are some cost-effective measures. I know a lot of people are talking about armed guards in schools, which are great, if they decide to do it.

GRACE: To Rita Cosby, joining me there on the scene. Rita, we understood that police cars were coming back to the home.

COSBY: Yes, in fact, I`m standing in front of the shooter`s home. They did come in for two-and-a-half hours. They left. But they look absolutely like they`re on some sort of a mission. When we find out what they`re looking for, we`ll tell you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRACE: Putting together pieces of the puzzles.

Out to the lines. Hi, Rebecca. What`s your question, dear?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. Love you, love Lucy and David.

GRACE: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`m from Canada, and the only legally guns I`ve known of growing up to be -- are to be are for police, armed guards, military and hunters. And there are also guns that have been illegally acquired on the streets and used on the streets and have been tragic.

My question is, because I don`t really understand, what on earth are these high-powered guns used for? Why do people own them?

GRACE: You know, out to you, Harry Houck. What are they used for?

HOUCK: I can tell you, I used to have one. When I was younger, I bought an AR-15 and they`re basically used for as target practice. They`re fun to shoot.

GRACE: Why do you need an assault rifle? Just curious.

HOUCK: Well, I spent four years in the Marine Corps, and when I came out, I really liked my M-16 that I had at the time, and I really liked going out and shooting that weapon out in the woods and out at the range. It was just something fun to do.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just a tragic, tragic situation for the teachers, the principals and those angels. That`s all I keep thinking about, is those angels.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I mean, when things happen to your children and to other people`s children, I mean, I can`t look at my children`s faces now without seeing the faces of every one of their schoolmates.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Welcome back. For those of you just joining us tonight, we are putting together pieces of the puzzle, a puzzle that doesn`t make any sense to us.

Out to the lines, to Jeff in Iowa. Hi, Jeff. What`s your question?

JEFF, CALLER FROM IOWA: Well, it`s not really a question, it`s a comment. You know, I`m hearing all this about, you know, gun control. But I`m not hearing how they`re going to protect the schools. I`ve got an 8- year-old daughter, you know. And I live in Des Moines, Iowa. You know, but I`m not hearing, you know, the need to hire security or something to keep the guns out of the schools.

GRACE: You know what I`ve been thinking about, Jeff? The very same thing. People have been screaming about gun control since day one. And I am all about enforcing the constitution and your right to bear arms, but I don`t know why anybody needs to have an assault weapon. Hello? Like what you have overseas to shoot the enemy?

But that`s a whole other can of worms. I want to focus on what you said about protecting schools. Now we heard a couple of ideas from Harry Houck, former NYPD. Now Houck Consulting.

Back to Richard Novia, former director of security. Now how do these magnetic doors work? And other than this lady principal running out and really sacrificing her own life to try to save children, there`s got to be a better way.

RICHARD NOVIA, FORMER DIRECTOR OF SECURITY, NEWTOWN, CONNECTICUT BOARD OF EDUCATION: Well, there is, and Harry is correct. We can improve on access control, reduce crime through environmental design.

GRACE: I don`t know what any of that means.

(CROSSTALK)

NOVIA: This system that was in --

GRACE: I`m just a lawyer. I don`t know what you mean, access controls and environmental design. What?

NOVIA: Access control is what Harry was describing, in this case like a magnetic --

GRACE: Oh, you mean -- yes.

NOVIA: You have a -- you have a magnetic door latch. It`s pretty simple. Someone inside watching the monitor, in this particular case it`s accurate, can see who is at the front door and buzz you in. It needs to be updated in all schools.

GRACE: Well, this guy didn`t even get buzzed in. He shot the door and got in.

Rita Cosby, that`s been confirmed, right? He shot through the glass?

RITA COSBY, INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST, AUTHOR OF "QUIET HERO": Yes, it is. And, in fact, we broke the news on your show on the first night. We`ve been told from multiple sources that officials have confirmed that, that he did break his way in. We`ve been told that he actually shot his way in and then put his hand through the glass and the breaking of the glass is what triggered the principal and the others to come out of that meeting. They suddenly heard this unusual sound.

GRACE: You know, Rita, tell me what else is going on. You`ve been kept out there right in the neighborhood all day. What have you learned?

COSBY: Well, you know what I`ve learned is that neighbors didn`t really know this guy at all. This is the shooter. I`m right in front of the house. We`ve been watching a lot of sort of activity in the house.

I have talked to so many neighbors. Neighbors on either side have never met Adam Lanza, the shooter. Think about this. Some of them have lived there one, three years, one, eight years, never met the shooter. They met. They saw the woman. Apparently people in the neighborhood knew the mother. Said she was very nice. And also said that she was very hospitable.

Also friends told us, and I thought this was striking, Nancy, because knowing that the son is having developmental issues, obviously, she also was encouraging him to use guns. Friends close to the Lanza family have told me that she was apparently feeling it would build his self-confidence, also teach him to respect guns by learning about guns.

And that`s sort of a little bit awkward. People are having a little trouble understanding that. Why give him access? Why teach him that if you know he`s got some problems?

GRACE: Well, another thing, Ellie Jostad, that we`re learning is, didn`t we contact a babysitter, a former babysitter of his that said the mom said don`t turn your back on him? Don`t leave the room because I don`t know what he`ll do?

ELLIE JOSTAD, NANCY GRACE CHIEF EDITORIAL PRODUCER: Right, Nancy. Well, there is a report that a babysitter, this is a man who is now older, lives in California. But he says when the shooter was just 10 years old, this man babysat for him, and he says that that`s exactly what she said. Don`t turn your back. Don`t even go to the bathroom and leave him alone.

GRACE: Joining me right now is Pat Hays, raised two sons with autism. She is at autismvoices.com. She is an attorney, focuses on special education, former judge, Pat Hays is joining me.

Pat, I want to hear your thoughts on this. A lot of people are claiming the shooter was autistic. I mean, he was taking college classes, Pat, and making about a 3.3 in them.

PAT HAYS, RAISED TWO SONS WITH AUTISM, AUTISMVOICES.COM, ATTORNEY: Well, some people with autism do have very high intellectual capacities. Others do not. It`s not unusual for them to have expertise in some area like art, music, something like that. With Asperger`s, which is what I`ve been reading that he`s diagnosed with, you have a lot of different issues going on there. It`s really considered a higher functioning form of autism. And -- but it doesn`t -- I`ve never heard autism Asperger`s causing violence of this type.

GRACE: What do you make of what we heard earlier from Richard Novia and other reports that he couldn`t bond with his mom and that would get her very upset. She would try to hug him and he wouldn`t hug her, that he wouldn`t seem to register pain, that she thought he may have actually been trying to burn himself because he wanted to feel something?

HAYS: Right. And I think it is somewhat common that they don`t feel pain. I know one of my sons doesn`t really feel pain the same way that we do. But it`s hard to tell, you know, what he did, what he felt. We just don`t know that much about it.

GRACE: Well, another thing -- back out to you, Rita Cosby. I`m looking at the house. I mean, the ex-husband was giving her almost $300,000 a year. They did not have an acrimonious divorce. They had -- I guess if you can have a friendly divorce, they had it. Look at this gorgeous home. She doted on him. She devoted her life to him. What did he want? Why?

COSBY: Yes, it is staggering. And just to give you an example of what you`re saying, Nancy, there`s a story of when he was sick that apparently this was just a few years ago, he locked the door and said, mom, don`t come in. I don`t want you near me. I don`t want you around me. But then he said, please stay on the other side of the door. She literally stayed on the other side of the door all night long, slouching down on the other side of the door, sitting down on the carpet, and he`d check every few hours to say, are you there? Are you there?

This is the kind of mother she was. And apparently I asked -- you brought up the question about money. No financial issues. Obviously they were doing pretty well and everything seemed to be fine on that point.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRACE: Welcome back. We are live in Newtown and I`m trying to get to all of your calls. Joining me on the scene also with Rita is Alexis Weed.

Alexis, what more can you tell me?

ALEXIS WEED, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Nancy, I can tell you that a source had told me that those hard drives that we`ve heard about that were supposedly seized in the investigation, those hard drives, Nancy, I`m told are actually intact, not smashed as we had been hearing.

GRACE: Hold on. Don`t move, Alexis. Bill Levitan, telecommunications expert, what does that say to you, Ben?

BEN LEVITAN, TELECOMMUNICATIONS EXPERT: Nancy, it`s extremely hard to describe a computer. For one these hard disks, even if you smash your computer to pieces is highly likely that the hard disk, which is in a small shell usually filled with liquid, is going to stay intact. Even if this was destroyed, Nancy, our FBI people are incredible at reassembling broken disks.

It`s very likely that we`re going to get a full accounting of everything that this shooter has done for the past couple of months and, Nancy, it`s naive for people to think that they can destroy a computer and destroy evidence. Because most of the information about us, our e-mail, our Facebook, is not on our computer. It`s out there on a -- as we call it, the cloud. It`s out there on a -- you know, a computer that maybe belongs to Facebook or belongs to your Internet service provider.

We`ve said this a hundred times, Nancy. It`s extremely difficult to hide your electronic footprints. You cannot destroy this stuff. As you know, you send an e-mail to someone, there`s three copies.

GRACE: You`re right.

LEVITAN: One on your computer, there`s one on your --

GRACE: You`re right.

LEVITAN: So we`re going to be able to within days probably --

GRACE: That`s Ben Levitan, telecommunications expert. Tell me when you get Ben`s satellite back up.

With me right now is a former high school classmate of the shooter`s. A classmate that does not want to be identified by name.

Thank you for being with us.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thanks for having me.

GRACE: Tell me about your knowledge of Adam Lanza and your response, your reaction when you first heard this.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, I didn`t have much -- he was in my honors English class sophomore year of high school. And I really just remembered him being very quiet. He sat in front of me and didn`t really say anything. And actually when I first found out about this and heard his name, I didn`t even recognize his name. It was only after a friend called me and told me that the kid who always had the brief case, I immediately --

GRACE: So he always carried a briefcase to school?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. He always did. I mean, you know, most people have backpacks and messenger bags. It`s not like everyone called him briefcase kid, (INAUDIBLE), this is something that people recognized and it was something that everyone seems to (INAUDIBLE).

GRACE: So he sat -- the shooter sat in front of you for a whole class and you didn`t remember him? He was that quiet?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. He really was. What -- I mean, I didn`t really know his name. I wasn`t able to put his face to the name. And it`s obviously the second time I heard about the briefcase and everything, everything just came back to me immediately, and I just remembered that he was very, very uncomfortable in any kind of social situation. He really didn`t say anything in class. My teacher was very compassionate and tried to engage him in class discussions.

And I think in an English class of all classes, you know, you would get to know your classmates, always having a discussion about books, and everyone sharing their opinions as opposed if it were a math class or a science class. And he really just never had anything to say. And when the teacher would call him, he felt so uncomfortable and anything he could say as soon as possible.

GRACE: With me, everyone, is a former high school classmate of the shooter. It`s my understanding he was not bullied or picked on in school, though, was he?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, not at all. But my high school, I mean, my whole town, we`re such a good community and there was never any kind of physical bullying that I`m aware of. And you know, I think that if anything, I mean, people said things but there was never any kind of bullying. He really just wanted to be left alone and, in my high school, you know, if people wanted to be left alone, we leave them alone. No one was going to tease him or anything.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRACE: We are trying to put together pieces of the puzzle.

Unleash the lawyers, Kelly Saindon, Chicago, John Manuelian, L.A.

Kelly, a lot of talk about gun control. Weigh in.

KELLY SAINDON, FAMILY LAW ATTORNEY: The problem with that, Nancy, is we do have a right to bear arms and people that are acquiring guns legally should be able to defend themselves. And this is about mental illness. This is unforeseeable and maybe the mom --

GRACE: Whoa. Put her up. Put her up. Put her up. What -- did you diagnose him? Adam Lanza? Do you know he has a mental illness?

SAINDON: Well, your expert just told me that he had autism and Asperger`s.

GRACE: One thing that I`m hearing -- no. No, no, no.

SAINDON: Your expert told me that.

GRACE: We said that there are reports but we don`t know that. And another thing, John Manuelian, I hear Kelly, about you`ve got a right to defend yourself, but do you really think that the founding fathers were -- were considering an assault rifle? Do you really think that they were thinking about a Sig Sauer? What do you think?

JOHN MANUELIAN, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: No, I`m on your team. I agree with you. I don`t think assault rifles do anything except for kill other human beings. It doesn`t protect against --

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: People don`t go hunting with an assault rifle?

MANUELIAN: Again, not necessarily. And I think there should be gun reform. And I`m for it. As long as it`s consistent with the constitution.

GRACE: Well, I mean the Second Amendment gives us the right to bear arms, and I don`t want to mess with that. But I`m wondering how people get their mitts on guns like this.

And to you, Tom Kersting, you`re a school counselor, you`re a psychotherapist. Is the reality that no matter how much you control guns, you`re going to get people like this shooter? And I`m not willing to blame all this on somebody saying, he had Asperger`s. Uh-uh. I`m not -- I`m not having that being blamed.

TOM KERSTING, SCHOOL COUNSELOR AND PSYCHOTHERAPIST: Right. Me, either. I`m not blaming that at all. But I could tell you the profile of this kid already. Before any news station came on.

GRACE: He`s not a kid. Number one. Go ahead.

KERSTING: Man. Well, as a kid. I`m speaking as a fed, you know, as a high school counselor having dealt with kids, you know, prior to becoming adults. Loner, strange kid. You could probably go ask half of his classmates who do you think would be the person that would have done something like this and I guarantee a lot of them are going to say, Adam Lanza is the person. His awkwardness.

One thing that hasn`t been addressed either is, you know, going into these classroom and taking the lives of these innocent kids, you know, was he in so much pain himself that he felt perhaps everybody else feels the same way I do, they live my existence, and now I`m going to take their pain away by killing them all? Who knows. Or was he just a crazy sociopath that was out for blood, hated the world because he didn`t know how to connect with people? Who knows.

GRACE: With me right now, Richard Novia. I`d like your response to what the shrink said.

NOVIA: In agreeance with what he said, I don`t believe that he would be considered by the student body, people he interacted with, as the person who would someday go and kill 20 children and seven adults. I can`t agree with that at all. I actually spent a lot of time with him. As far as misjudgments here, it`s clearly that misjudgment took place on Mrs. Lanza`s part to buy such weapons with a student -- I mean, a child with mental disorders. There is where the problem lies.

GRACE: But all this is about him having a mental disorder.

NOVIA: Yes, it did exist.

KERSTING: You know, I think -- let me jump in for a minute, if you don`t mind. I -- you know --

NOVIA: I testified --

KERSTING: I think that, you know, our whole world, this kid is a native to violence. That`s what he`s born into. That`s what his reality is like a lot of young -- I keep calling him a kid -- young adults. That`s -- when we were kids, we played duck hunt. You know, we`d knocked over the little ducks. Now you`re playing videogames. Is that part of it? Could be.

GRACE: Well, wait.

KERSTING: Because a big part of it --

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: But back to you, Novia, when you say the mental illness was real and you`re the witness, what was the mental illness?

Richard, what was the mental illness you`re referring to?

NOVIA: These are -- Asperger`s is part of it. There were other mental disorders that he dealt with. But also the idea that he couldn`t feel the sensation of pain, burning, cutting, things like that. We`re putting all this on him and saying that later in life, it`s likely anyone would say that he would be the one to be the shooter. That is not true. There`s lots of wonderful --

GRACE: Are you telling me you`re absolutely confirming he had Asperger`s?

NOVIA: Yes. I`m confirming and have been confirming since the very beginning, and I was probably the first to say it. These conditions existed. I interacted with that boy daily for several years and can tell you that there was no indication by his behavior that he would carry out a heinous act, OK?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRACE: Straight out to you, Alexis Weed. The funerals have started.

WEED: Right, Nancy, and there are many funerals coming up right away here. Tomorrow, Charlotte Bacon. Also Caroline Previdi on Wednesday. Dawn Hochsprung, the principal, Nancy, Wednesday funeral. Benjamin Wheeler, Wednesday and Thursday. Also Rachel Davino, the behavioral therapist, scheduled for Thursday and Friday. Those are just to name a few, Nancy.

GRACE: All I know is that so many of us are still in shock and grieving as these funerals continue as the rest of us take our children to school.

Tonight our prayers in Newtown. I`ll see you tomorrow night, 8:00 sharp Eastern. And until then, good night, friend.

END