(Facebook/NYP)
A Facebook user claiming to be Adam Lanza's brother took to the social network to mourn the 27 people--including his mother and 20 schoolchildren--killed by Adam in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14, before the younger Lanza turned the gun on himself.
"I am a victim," Ryan Lanza told the New York Post via Facebook on Saturday. "I [lost] my mom and brother."
The 24-year-old, who lives in Hoboken, N.J., was initially misidentified by several media outlets as a suspect on the day of the shootings. He was questioned by police and later released.
According to the Post, Ryan Lanza posted a photo of Adam on Facebook Saturday under the message:
R.I.P
Adam Peter Lanza
April 22, 1992- Dec. 14, 2012(20 years old)
"I will miss you bro. I will always love you as long as I live"
-Ryan
When another Facebook user wrote that Adam deserved to "rot in hell," Ryan responded: “You have no right to call my brother names when he isn’t here no more. Just let my brother rest in peace. Please. Respect that."
According to the paper, Ryan also posted a photo of his mother, Nancy, who was shot and killed by Adam in their Newtown home before the troubled 20-year-old fired his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School, killing 20 children and 6 adults.
“You all will be truly be missed,” Ryan wrote on Facebook. “God Bless.”
But on Sunday, a spokesman for the Lanza family told the Post that "an imposter is behind Ryan Lanza's Facebook page and that Ryan did not post the messages" published in its original story.
Ryan Lanza's Facebook profile is private, but at least dozen pages have been launched supporting him in the wake of the massacre.
"The real shooter was his brother," a message on one of them reads. "Please stop blaming him for the shooting. He had nothing to do with it."