The Casper College “Bow & Arrow” killer and the Sandy Hook Elementary shooter were both young men who had Asperger’s Syndrome, took college classes as teens, and were considered “geniuses.”
On Nov. 30, 25-year-old Chris Krumm killed his father, math teacher James Krumm, with a bow and arrow in front of students inside a classroom at a Wyoming community college before taking his own life with a knife. Earlier that morning, Chris Krumm also fatally stabbed his father’s girlfriend, also a teacher, with a knife, police say.
On Friday, Adam Lanza, 20, shot and killed 26 people, including young children, at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.
In news reports following the tragedies, it was reported that the assailants attended college as teens, and were considered geniuses with Asperger’s Syndrome.
Lanza took several classes at Western Connecticut State University at age 16. Chris Krumm had earned dozens of college credits while attending high school in Casper.
Chris Krumm’s aunt described him to a reporter as a “borderline genius” upset by the belief he had inherited Asperger Syndrome from his dad.
It has also been widely reported that Lanza was considered a “nerdy genius” by his peers and had Asperger’s Syndrome.
Asperger’s Syndrome is a mild form of autism. News reports published across the nation Monday emphasized there is no link between violence and Asperger’s Syndrome.
“There really is no clear association between Asperger’s and violent behavior,” said psychologist Elizabeth Laugeson, an assistant clinical professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, told USA Today.
That article goes on to state:
High school classmates and others have described (Lanza) as bright but painfully shy, anxious and a loner. Those kinds of symptoms are consistent with Asperger’s, said psychologist Eric Butter of Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, who treats autism, including Asperger’s, but has no knowledge of Lanza’s case.
Research suggests people with autism do have a higher rate of aggressive behavior — outbursts, shoving or pushing or angry shouting — than the general population, he said.
“But we are not talking about the kind of planned and intentional type of violence we have seen at Newtown,” he said in an email.
“These types of tragedies have occurred at the hands of individuals with many different types of personalities and psychological profiles,” he added.
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