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Newtown Shooting: Lanzas Described As Polite, Quiet

NEWTOWN, Conn. – The young man who killed his mother in their home and then 26 students and adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown on Friday was described along with his mother as being quiet neighbors who kept to themselves.

Newtown police sealed off a section of Yogananda Street on Saturday, the day after Adam Lanza killed his mother, Nancy, at home. Lanza then went on to kill 26 others at Sandy Hook Elementary School before turning the gun on himself.

Newtown police sealed off a section of Yogananda Street on Saturday, the day after Adam Lanza killed his mother, Nancy, at home. Lanza then went on to kill 26 others at Sandy Hook Elementary School before turning the gun on himself.

Photo Credit: Alfred Branch

Adam Lanza, 20, and his mother, Nancy lived together in a large white colonial house on Yogananda Street in an upscale neighborhood of Newtown.

The mother and son were described as polite, but not many people knew them, said Joannie and Bill Kovac, who live down the street and around the corner from the Lanzas on Charter Ridge Road.

“The family moved here from Rhode Island about 14 years ago,” said Bill, referring to Nancy, her former husband, Peter, and sons Adam and Ryan. Nancy and Peter divorced several years ago, and Peter, a tax vice president with a division of GE, now lives in Stamford with his new wife.

The Kovacs' encounters with the Lanzas were pleasant, but the Lanza boys were older than many of the other children in the neighborhood, so the families did not socialize much.

Yogananda Street and the immediate area is part of the Bennett’s Farm development in Newtown, which was more than 600 acres of lush, rolling hills with well-manicured lawns and houses roughly 20 years old or less. The homes sell for $550,000 to about $850,000 each, according to Bill Kovac.

“It’s a beautiful neighborhood, very close-knit,” Joannie Kovac said.

Like the other residents of Newtown – and the rest of the country – the Kovacs said they are heartbroken and a bit shaken up by the tragedy, in part because their two children attended Sandy Hook Elementary.

“The staff there was wonderful to our children,” Joannie said. “This is just unspeakable.”

To read more about the Newtown school shooting, click here.  

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