boxing day 2012: Ryan Lanza: Sandy Hook shooter's brother speaks out about his grief after the massacre

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Ryan Lanza: Sandy Hook shooter's brother speaks out about his grief after the massacre

Ryan Lanza spoke out for the first time since being released as suspect

Is four years older than his brother Adam, the Sandy Hook shooter

Said he is grieving his brother and sister

By Daily Mail Reporter

PUBLISHED: 09:30 EST, 23 December 2012 | UPDATED: 11:26 EST, 23 December 2012

Not the right man: Ryan Lanza was incorrectly stated as the shooter during the initial frenzy following the massacre

The brother of Sandy Hook shooter Adam Lanza has spoken out, saying that in spite of the horror caused at the hands of his younger sibling, he is still grieving his death.

Ryan Lanza posted two photos on Facebook over the weekend, one of his brother Adam and one of his mother Nancy- who was the first victim in the shooting spree- with emotional messages in the captions.

'I will miss you bro. I will always love you as long as I live,' he wrote under a picture of a then-teenaged Adam.

A similar sentiment went out to his mother, for whom he said 'I miss you mom. I love you so much. You will always be in my heart.'

Ryan, 24, also had a Facebook chat with a reporter from The New York Post where he said 'I am a victim'.

'I loss [sic] my mom and brother,' he said according to the paper.

Though this is his first time formally speaking with a reporter, it was not the first time that he took to Facebook to speak out about the case.

Ryan was initially identified as the shooter in the crazed hours immediately following the shooting on Friday December 14 when Adam killed his mother in their Connecticut home and then proceeded to kill 20 young children, six teachers and himself.

Because Adam had his brother's identification on him at the time of the shooting, police initially announced that it was Ryan Lanza who was the murderer.

Victims: 25 crosses and one Star of David are lined up at a memorial for those killed in Newton, Connecticut

In reality, Ryan was at work at financial firm Ernst & Young in Manhattan when television news reports began claiming he was the shooter.

Lanza quickly told his boss: 'I need to go.' He then walked out of his Times Square office, according to a co-worker who spoke to MailOnline on condition of anonymity.

Thirty minutes later, New York police officers stormed the office. Between leaving his place of work and being taken in for questioning, Lanza defended himself in a series of bizarre Facebook posts when he was mistakenly named as the killer after his ID was found at the scene.

'Everyone shut the f*** up it wasn't me,' he insisted on his Facebook page on Friday. 'I'm on the bus home now it wasn't me. IT WASN'T ME I WAS AT WORK IT WASN'T ME.'

Mourning: Ryan Lanza (left) said that he will forever remember his brother Adam (right) who was responsible for 27 deaths and who killed himself during the Sandy Hook shooting

Confusion: After police mistakenly identified the killer as Ryan Lanza, he fought back on his Facebook page

Brett Wilshe, a friend of Ryan Lanza's, told the AP that he sent Ryan a Facebook message Friday asking what was going on and if he was alright.

According to Wilshe, Lanza's reply was something along the lines of: 'It was my brother. I think my mother is dead. Oh my God.'

The relationship between Ryan and his brother is one that will undoubtedly come to light as time goes on, but part of the reason why Ryan was ruled out as a suspect in the shooting was because he has not seen his brother in over two years.

Love: Ryan said that he loved his mother Nancy, right, who was the first victim of the shooting and was killed in bed at her Newtown home, left

That absence does not seem to have made him any less loyal, however, as he now takes to Facebook to criticize those who criticize his dead brother.

For instance, when someone wrote on Ryan's pace that his brother deserved to 'rot in hell' and was the 'scum of the earth', Ryan responded by writing 'I am so tired of people blaming me or something my brother did. I love Adam, hes [sic] my brother.'

Ryan continued, saying that the person who commented was a stranger: 'He is calling my brother a monster when he don't [sic] even know him'.