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Ex-Babysitter Says Conn. School Shooter's Mother Cautioned: Don't Turn Your Back on Him
Adam Lanza, 20, who shot 26 people dead, 20 of them schoolchildren aged five to ten, and then shot himself at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut on Friday. (Picture courtesy of Kate Foy)

Ex-Babysitter Says Conn. School Shooter's Mother Cautioned: Don't Turn Your Back on Him

"...it could have been me."

This undated photo circulated by law enforcement and provided by NBC News, shows Adam Lanza. Credit: AP

The mother of the Sandy Hook Elementary shooter Adam Lanza warned the boy's babysitter not to turn his back on the child, not to even "go to the bathroom."

Ryan Kraft, who now lives in California, reportedly babysat Adam when he was around 9-years-old. Kraft told CBS News he was horrified when he found out that the child he once looked after had shot his mother in the face before killing 20 children and six adults on Friday.

"I'm just numb to it, I haven't really processed the fact that this happened right where I used to be, and that, 15 years ago, it could have been me," he said.

He remembered Nancy Lanza warning him never to turn his back on Adam. She said "to keep an eye on him at all times…to never turn my back, or even go to the bathroom or anything like that," Kraft recalled.

Kraft described young Adam as an introverted boy, but very intelligent and always in "his own world."

"Whenever we were doing something, whether it was building Legos, or playing video games, he was really focused on it. It was like he was in his own world," he told CBS News.

Kraft has since started a fundraiser to help the victims in Newtown, Conn. He hopes the money can be used to help those dealing with psychological issues and with funeral expenses. Money may also go towards establishing a scholarship fund in honor of the victims.

Kraft's fundraising page raised more than $53,000 in one day.

Adam suffered from a physical disorder that left him unable to feel pain, according to, Richard Novia, the school district's then head of security. He would have to be supervised whenever he handled equipment in case he accidentally injured himself and didn't realize it.

Adam Lanza, 20, who shot 26 people dead, 20 of them schoolchildren aged five to ten, and then shot himself at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut on Friday. (Picture courtesy of Kate Foy)

"Novia recalls that Adam also seemed to have spells where he experienced a psychological corollary to his physical condition, withdrawing so much that his mother would have to be summoned," The Daily Beast reports.

Nancy Lanza took Adam out of high school during his sophomore year. He is thought to have been homeschooled where he took college-level computer courses at Western Connecticut State University.

So, was Nancy Lanza's warning to Kraft an ominous prediction of things to come or was it just her way of preparing him for the all the duties that come with supervising a young child?

 

(H/T: The Daily Mail)

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