A Hermosa Beach man who babysat Adam Lanza, who shot and killed 28 people including 20 children at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., Friday, said the boy's mother's instructions a decade ago suggested there may have already been serious mental health concerns.

Ryan Kraft was neighbors with the Lanzas and watched over Adam when he was nine or 10 years old. He told KABC Lanza was for the most part quiet while Kraft was with him, but would sometimes act out more aggressively than most kids his age.

From KABC:  

"His mom, Nancy, had always instructed me to keep an eye on him at all times and never turn my back or even go to the bathroom or anything like that, which I found odd, but I really didn't ask. It wasn't any of my business, but looking back at it now, I guess maybe there was something else going on," said Kraft.

…"When I had put him to bed early or stopped doing something, he would be really unhappy about it and throw a tantrum in a way that a younger kid I would normally expect to behave," said Kraft.

Kraft said he never questioned Lanza's mother about her son's behavior, but there were rumors.

"There was talk around the neighborhood that Adam had seen a school psychiatrist when he was younger. I don't know if that's true or not," he said.

Lanza fatally shot his mother in her home Friday morning, before driving to the school where he killed teachers and staff, the majority of two classes of first-graders and finally, himself.

There's been wide speculation about the character of Lanza's mother, but Kraft said she was "present" and "really involved in her kids' lives."

Meanwhile, investigators may have to try other avenues to uncover the motive behind Lanza's rampage. 

Connecticut State Police spokesman, Lt. J. Paul Vance said earlier Monday that there hadn't been "any difficulty collecting evidence at all" from Lanza's home. But according to The New York Times, another law enforcement official said a recovered computer had been so badly damaged, it would not likely turn up much useful information.

Lt. Vance also said Lanza in fact had "no connection" to the elementary school he targeted — it was initially thought his mother had been a teacher there. According to The Daily Beast, further details of that development are not yet available.

Read more of Neon Tommy's Sandy Hook coverage here. 

 

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