Father of Sandy Hook school shooting victim dies of apparent suicide, police say

A man whose child was killed in 2012 during a mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School was found dead Monday morning of an apparent suicide, police in Newtown said.

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Authorities said Jeremy Richman, 49, was found dead Monday morning at Edmond Town Hall, a movie theater and event space in Newtown.

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He was the father of Avielle Richman, one of 20 children killed in the Sandy Hook shooting. He founded a foundation aimed at preventing violence in Avielle's name after her death. The Hartford Courant reported Richman had an office for the Avielle Foundation at Edmond Town Hall.

Police said Richman's death did not appear to be suspicious.

"There are no words to describe the tragic weight of today's news. Jeremy Richman was a loving husband, father and friend to many. I am proud to say he was my friend," Newtown First Selectman Daniel Rosenthal said in a statement obtained by the Courant. "I don't want to speculate as to why Jeremy took his life, except to say none of us can fathom the enormity of loss he carried with him after the death of his beautiful daughter, Avielle."

Richman's death comes after two survivors of last year's deadly shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida died in separate apparent suicides.

An unidentified student at the school died of an apparent suicide Saturday night, Coral Springs police told the Miami Herald over the weekend. Several days earlier another survivor of the 2018 shooting, 19-year-old Sydney Aiello, died in an apparent suicide.

Twenty first-grade students and six adults died in 2012 when a gunman opened fire at Sandy Hook Elementary School. The gunman later turned a gun on himself, authorities said.

Authorities continue to investigate Richman's death.

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