Sandy Hook Victim’s Father Dies in Apparent Suicide

Jeremy Richman stood with his wife, Jennifer Hensel, as she held a photo of their daughter, Avielle Richman, at the Edmond Town Hall in Newtown, Conn., in 2013.
Jessica Hill/Associated Press

The father of a Sandy Hook school shooting victim was found dead in an apparent suicide in Newtown, Conn., on Monday morning, the local police said.

Jeremy Richman, 49, was found dead at Edmond Town Hall, a movie theater and event space in Newtown, at about 7 a.m., according to Lt. Aaron Bahamonde of the Newtown Police Department.

Mr. Richman was the father of Avielle Richman, one of the 20 children killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012. Some of the police officers who reported to the scene of his death on Monday also responded to that shooting, Lieutenant Bahamonde said.

“This is devastating to our community,” Lieutenant Bahamonde said. “I can’t stress that enough.”

Following Avielle’s death, Mr. Richman and his wife, Jennifer Hensel, created the Avielle Foundation, a nonprofit focused on neuroscience research, with the goal of “exploring the underpinnings of the brain that lead to violent behaviors,” according to the foundation’s website. The foundation had an office in Edmond Town Hall, where Mr. Richman was found dead.

The police were called to the building on Monday morning by contractors who were working there, Lieutenant Bahamonde said. When they arrived, the police also found a note left by Mr. Richman. Lieutenant Bahamonde did not disclose what the note said.

The police and the state’s medical examiner’s office were investigating the death, Lieutenant Bahamonde said.

Mr. Richman, a neuropharmacologist, earned a doctorate from the University of Arizona in 1992. He also had an appointment as a faculty lecturer in psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine. In 2016, Yale’s Department of Psychiatry honored Mr. Richman and Ms. Hensel with its Research Advocacy Award.

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Source: New York Times