Late last week, state police released the thousands of documents that made up their investigation into the Newtown shootings. Even though more is now known about the gunman who killed 20 children, six educators, his mother, and himself, it doesn't appear that anything gunman Adam Lanza did before December 14, 2012 could have gotten serious attention from law enforcement.
Chief State's Attorney Kevin Kane, appearing on WNPR's The Colin McEnroe Show, spoke about the options available to police in a case like Lanza's before Newtown. "In situations like this," he said, "they are extremely limited."
Kane said obtaining a search warrant before the fact was an unlikely feat. "I agree that, based on the information that was certainly known then, or certainly that even is known now," he said, "we probably could not have have gotten a search warrant to seize those firearms."
Kane noted that mental illness doesn't equate with dangerousness. He said, "The fact that somebody is mentally ill doesn't mean he's a danger to himself or to others. The fact that somebody is fascinated with mass murders does not mean that he, himself, is a danger to somebody else or to others. So, that's a pretty complicated area."
