Hoboken man’s brother was Connecticut gunman

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: The gunman in the Connecticut school massacre has been officially identified as Adam Lanza — a developmentally disabled student — and not his older brother, Ryan, of Hoboken, who was scooped up and taken in for questioning soon after the incident, as CLIFFVIEW PILOT reported exclusively earlier this afternoon.

Photo Credit: *Cliffview Pilot File Photo*

Jerry DeMarco

12/14/2012 9:34 p.m.

Ryan Lanza, 27, was initially identified by CLIFFVIEW PILOT and other media as the gunman.

But CLIFFVIEW PILOT reported a short time later that he was taken into custody for questioning and that his brother, 20-year-old brother was deemed responsible (SEE: Connecticut school shooter misidentified).

The younger Lanza then killed himself before police could reach the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT this morning, authorities there said.

Hoboken police officials later confirmed that Ryan Lanza was taken into custody after officers rushed the five-story Hoboken apartment building at 1313 Grand Street where he lived, in the frantic moments after the killer was identified.

As of 4:30 this afternoon, the Lanzas’ father was on his way to speak with investigators, CLIFFVIEW PILOT‘s source added. The body of their mother, who was a teacher at the school, was found at a Newtown-area home, Connecticut State Police said.

Just before 2 p.m., county and city officers who obtained a search warrant entered the Hoboken apartment building as a crowd of media members and other onlookers gathered. They waited for federal agents, who swept the apartment with a remote-controlled device around 3 p.m.

“They were afraid of another incident like in Colorado, where the guy booby-trapped his apartment,” the law enforcement source told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.

The apartment was declared safe soon afterward, he said.

A short time earlier, officers grabbed Ryan Lanza, apparently as he rounded a corner toward his building, according to the source and reported here.

Twenty-six people were killed this morning in Newtown, many of them in a kindergarten class.

The call for help came in around 9:30 for “a potential active shooter situation,” a Connecticut State Police spokesman said this afternoon. Newtown and state police sent all available on- and off-duty officers. They said they found the shootings had taken place in two rooms in one section of the school.

Those rescued were taken to a staging area. Eighteen children and six adults were pronounced dead at the school; two children died at the hospital.

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