Adam Lanza, 20, 'deeply disturbed kid'

Adam Lanza, 20, 'deeply disturbed kid'

ABC News Exclusive

Alleged Sandy Hook Elementary shooter Adam Lanza as seen in this 2005 photo. ABC News Exclusive
 

He was dark and disturbed, a deeply troubled boy from a wealthy family who unnerved his neighbors and classmates.

Mass murderer Adam Lanza, 20, was a ticking time bomb, people who knew him told the Daily News.

“This was a deeply disturbed kid,” a family insider told the Daily News. “He certainly had major issues. He was subject to outbursts from what I recall.”

Lanza, who friends and officials said suffered from Asperger’s syndrome or a personality disorder, had a tortured mind.

He was socially awkward and at times unstable, but also extraordinarily bright.

“He was smart,” the insider said. “He was like one of these real brainiac computer kind of kids.”

A “longtime” family friend said Lanza had a condition “where he couldn’t feel pain.”

“A few years ago when he was on the baseball team, everyone had to be careful that he didn’t fall because he could get hurt and not feel it,” said the friend. “Adam had a lot of mental problems.”

Lanza’s strange behavior was well-known among his well-heeled neighbors in leafy Newtown, Conn. His antics irked several residents.

“Adam Lanza has been a weird kid since we were 5 years old,” a neighbor and former classmate named Tim Dalton wrote on Twitter. “As horrible as this was, I can't say I am surprised . . . Burn in hell, Adam.”

He was also seen as an odd figure at Newtown High School.

Lanza walked the halls carrying a black briefcase while most students lugged their belongings in backpacks.

“That stuck out,” said Tim Lalli, 20, who graduated with Lanza in 2010. “It was different.”

Lalli said Lanza wasn’t a total outcast, but he didn’t speak much.

“Everyone just assumed he was a smart kid and that’s why he didn’t like talking to people all the time,” he said. “He hung out with the smart crowd.”

And he lived in luxury.

Lanza was living with his devoted mother, Nancy, in the family’s four-bedroom, 3,100-square-foot estate.

Nancy Lanza divorced Adam’s father, Peter, in 2008. Peter Lanza, now a vice president of taxes for GE Energy Financial Services, agreed to annual alimony payments that started at $ 240,000 and would have reached $ 298,800 in 2015.

The couple had married on June 6, 1981, in Kingston, N.H. â€" where Adam Lanza was born â€" and the divorce hit Peter Lanza hard, his lawyer said.

“He was very upset that he was getting divorced, but he didn’t want to take it out on anybody,” said attorney Gary Oberst.

He said the Lanzas were deeply devoted to their children. In fact, Peter Lanza insisted on handing over more money than his lawyer initially suggested.