April 27, 2023 10:39am EDT
Parents of Louisville mass shooter break silence, describe son's panic attack days before massacre
Todd, Lisa Sturgeon say 25-year-old son said he suffered 'panic attack' before Louisville mass shooting
By Greg Norman | Fox News The parents of Louisville gunman Connor Sturgeon revealed Thursday that their son said he suffered an unexplained "panic attack" and felt a desire to stay away from his office in the days leading up to the mass shooting there.
Lisa and Todd Sturgeon are now speaking out following the April 10 massacre at an Old National Bank location in downtown Louisville, Kentucky, during which Connor killed five at his workplace before dying in an exchange of gunfire with police. They said he was seeing mental health professionals and was grappling with anxiety and an attempted suicide within the last year, according to the network.
"He called me on the Tuesday before the event and he said, ‘Well I had a panic attack yesterday and I had to leave work’ and I said, ‘OK, well what happened? What was the cause?’" Lisa Sturgeon told NBC's "Today" show in an interview that aired Thursday morning.
"'I don't know. I don’t know what it was, but I think I should take off a while’ and I said, ‘That’s fine, we are here to help you,'" Sturgeon said, recalling the conversation.
The mother says she had lunch with her son the next day, followed by an appointment with him and his psychiatrist on the Thursday before the shooting.
The last time his parents say they saw him was at a large family gathering on Easter Sunday, where Lisa said "he was fine."
"I have got big extended family on my mom’s side so there is like 60 people at this egg hunt and he is helping people, the last people that are finding their eggs, he is out there doing that," Todd Sturgeon told NBC. "He is joking, went home with his buddy and they watched the last round of The Masters."
Lisa said the next morning she received a phone call and "when I picked it up and [it] was his roommate, letting me know... it was something along the lines of Connor called his roommate and said, 'I left some notes there, call my mother, I’m going to go in and shoot up Old National.’"
more
https://www.foxnews.com/us/parents-louisville-mass-shooter-break-silence-describe-son-panic-attack-days-before-massacre