The horror of the Sandy Hook shooting was such that the town of Newtown, Connecticut, demolished the school where it occurred and broke ground on a new structure.
This week, the place where the massacre started — the former home of gunman Adam Lanza and his mother — met the same end.
The Lanzas’ home, which sat on a hill on a grassy 2-acre property at 36 Yogananda Drive, was bulldozed on Tuesday, Newtown Director of Planning George Benson said.
Adam Lanza, 20, used an assault rifle to kill 20 first-grade students and six adults in Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14, 2012, then killed himself.
Before the massacre, Lanza shot and killed his mother at their house.
In January, council members voted to demolish the house. Local officials had consulted with victims’ families and neighbors and decided that the best way to honor those killed was to raze the house.
After the incident, authorities boarded up the front door to the home, where investigators found more than 1,600 rounds of ammunition, at least 10 knives and three samurai swords, among other weapons.
Sandy Hook Elementary School was demolished in 2013 and a new school will occupy the place where it stood, according to the town’s website.
When the decision was made to demolish the home, city leaders said they favored placing restrictions on the deed for the property: If it is sold, the proceeds will go to the victims’ families.
“I’m very happy that they knocked it down,” Newtown resident Dorothy Dwyer told CNN affiliate WFSB.
“It’s only a bad memory and we have people stopping there that really shouldn’t stop there,” Dwyer said. “It’s a nice area and those people deserve to have privacy.”
