Newtown Gunman Adam Lanza Did Not Wear Body Armor At Massacre

[DonViejo]

Source: TPM



TOM KLUDT 10:07 AM EST, FRIDAY DECEMBER 28, 2012

A Connecticut state police spokesman on Thursday said Adam Lanza was not donning a bullet proof vest when he carried out the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., the New Haven Register reports.

Lt. J. Paul Vance said Lanza was only wearing a utility vest.

“It was a fishing type vest, a jacket with a lot of pockets; it was not a bullet-proof vest,” Vance said.

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Read more: http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/newtown-gunman-adam-lanza-did-not-wear-body

[AnotherMcIntosh]

1. Another good story ruined by the facts?

For some, do facts matter any more?

[slackmaster]

2. All I know is, everything you know is wrong.

[MjolnirTime]

3. Whatever happened to the lead about him having an altercation at the School in days prior?

That completely vanished with no resolution.

[naaman fletcher]

6. Meh..

like the body armor.... people take wild bits of gossip they had and turn them into news stories. And by "people" I mean "reporters".

[PoliticAverse]

16. I later saw a police denial of that story. n/t

[ProgressiveProfessor]

4. No surprises

Some here have suggested be ban armor. Its really a non issue.

[ileus]

5. The same thing was claimed during the Co shooting incident.

[CJCRANE]

7. Grammar question: is it correct to use "donning"

as a synonym of "wearing"?

I thought "to don (an item of clothing)" meant "to put on (an item of clothing)".

[nolabear]

9. You're right. He'd have to be doing both at once.

[kath]

12. Today's "journalists" are SOOOOO literate.

not.

[Igel]

15. It's where you go when you can't cut the BA in English literature.

If I could remember the name of the college roommate's I had one semester I'd Google him. Utterly incompetent.

Probably working for a major newspaper or media source now.

[Skittles]

21. a lot of it is offshore

[Eleanors38]

24. Wish it were further off.

[Brickbat]

14. Heh, that jumped out at me, too.

[Historic NY]

8. Well that clears that up.......

the sale or use is restricted in Conn. even from outside or mail order.

Its like the no Bushmaster .223 weapon being used it was in the car. The weapon found in the truck was a shotgun. Unfortunately once again its telephone tag via the social media.

[Remmah2]

10. Before the Internet

Before the Internet I wonder how much media myth became truth for eternity?

[TwilightGardener]

11. Nothing was right about this story. Nothing.

Just the lowest moment in journalism EVER.

[AtheistCrusader]

13. Just like Aurora, at the theater shooting.

A 'tactical vest' does not stop bullets. It's just got a lot of pockets.

[caseymoz]

17. Just presume everything you hear from a crisis

. . . for the first week is going to be wrong. I mean, in a massacre, survivors are confused and in shock. The hysteria they feel can spread to the responders and the reporters. Eye-witnesses are frequently wrong, and are worse under stress. The same stories are told multiple times with so many different details that people think it's different stories. Plus, I have no proof, but I really think under stress some people will just hallucinate. Meanwhile, reporters do hang back from checking details because the survivors are traumatized and responders are busy and/or traumatized.

Then there's the fact that everybody tries to turn horror stories into hero stories. They don't care if any of the heroics reported are true.

Personally, I'm impressed when they can get the body count right the first day.

[Lurks Often]

18. Reporters checking details?

You must have a better class of journalist then I do here in CT. I don't watch TV anymore, but the quality of writing in the Hartford Courant has gone way downhill, mostly they seem to publish police statements for routine crime items, they often get basic facts wrong and apparently the only editing that gets done is by running spell check.

[caseymoz]

22. Some of that is not necessarily the reporter's fault.

Crime beat reporting is generally done like this: you go to the police station, pick up the arrest reports that are out in the bin for you. Those are publicly available, but if you have a question, count on the fact that the police will not answer it.

With my local police department, they now have a PR department, and any question you have is referred to them. It's immoral for public servants to protect themselves from public scrutiny in such a way, but that's not even considered questionable now.

[Lurks Often]

23. It wasn't just that, it was a

nearly daily list of poorly written, rarely fact checked and badly edited articles that has made me critical of the Hartford Courant and given their declining number of subscribers, I'm not the only one.

[Major Nikon]

19. That's why I've kept the conjecture down to a minimum

There were many corrections about Columbine that didn't get reported until many months, if not years, afterward.

To this day many people simply assume that Eric Harris was a normal kid that was just bullied by jocks to the point of lashing out. The reality is closer to saying he was a psychopathic killer who thought he was superior to his victims. "Trenchcoat Mafia", "outcasts", "Marilyn Manson"... all bullshit myths.

This Slate article by David Cullen didn't appear until 5 years after the shooting:

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/assessment/2004/04/the_depressive_and_the_psychopath.html

[UpInArms]

27. thanks for that link

I had not seen that article and it was very enlightening.

[MADem]

20. What was IN the utility vest pockets? The mini-story is tantalizing in what we are NOT told.

Did he have spare magazines, spare bullets, squirreled away in those pockets?

[HooptieWagon]

26. Yes, probably spare magazines. nt

[Eleanors38]

25. One awful GOP/RW news organization has run regular de-bunking stories:

NPR.