US school shooter's father lays son's body to rest

NEW YORK - Agence France-Presse

This undated photo shows Adam Lanza in a Newtown High School yearbook photo. Authorities have identified Lanza as the gunman opened fire Friday, Dec. 14, 2012, inside an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., killing 26 people, including 20 children, before killing himself. AP Photo

The father of the deranged gunman who massacred 20 small children and six other people at an elementary school and also killed his mother has finally been able to lay his son's body to rest.
 
A family spokesman told AFP that Peter Lanza, a tax executive at General Electric, "claimed Adam Lanza's body on Thursday and there were private arrangements that took place over the weekend." The spokesman would not say what kind of ceremony was held, saying "the family wants folks to respect their privacy and isn't going to elaborate on the specifics." Adam Lanza, 20, shot himself at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14 as police closed in after he had gunned down 20 small children and six staff members. Immediately before the spree, he had shot dead his mother at her house in Newtown, a small town in Connecticut.
 
His body remained in the Connecticut medical examiner's office until its release last week, the family spokesman said.
 
The mother, Nancy Lanza, was buried in a private ceremony in New Hampshire. She was divorced from Peter Lanza and had been raising her bright but deeply disturbed son on her own.
 
The shootings, in which Adam Lanza wielded a semi-automatic assault-style rifle, provoked a major national debate on gun control.
 
US President Barack Obama has pledged to back a new bill coming up very soon to ban military-style weapons of the kind Lanza used.