Crash vic’s ma was shot down
Pa. mass killing took her in 2009; he died Sat. in Hell’s Kitchen
The only son of a Pennsylvania mass shooting victim died in a motorcycle crash in Hell’s Kitchen, his family told the Daily News Monday.
Ian Overmier’s death brought a fresh wave of grief to his family, who in 2009 buried his mother, Heidi Overmier — one of a dozen women shot by a murderous loner who burst into an aerobics class at a suburban Pittsburgh LA Fitness. Heidi Overmier and two others died, as did the shooter, who took his own life.
Ian Overmier, 28, moved to New York City from the Pennsylvania city to pursue his dream of being a chef, his uncle told The News.
“One day kind of out of nowhere he told us he wanted to become a chef. So that’s what he became,” said his uncle Ian Schuchert. “He enrolled at The American Culinary Institute and was able to travel to Europe, and then he eventually moved out to New York where had been the last few years.”
On Saturday afternoon, that dream was cut short. Overmier was riding north on 12th Ave. when he tried to pass a car making a right turn onto W. 46th St., cops said.
He couldn’t get around the vehicle and lost control of his bike, hitting a curb, cops said. The impact sent him flying off his seat and onto the pavement.
“My wife is pretty distraught. Ian was her world,” his uncle said. After the mass shooting, his wife, Tracy Schuchert, became the executor of her sister’s will.
“So we had a big part in Ian’s life,” he said.
Ian’s 48-year-old mother was taking an aerobics class on Aug. 4, 2009, when the killer, who rambled in a series of blog posts about his inability to find a woman who would sleep with him, walked in with a duffel bag full of guns and opened fire.
Before her death, Heidi Overmier worked as a sales manager for the Kennywood amusement park. Her friends recalled her to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette as a devoted single mom who took her son to soccer practices and was active in her church, where she attended classes and produced the children’s Christmas play.
“I was so impressed with Heidi, with her smile and her attitude that ‘I can do this, I can get this done,’ and her background fit very nicely,” her boss at the amusement park, Keith Hood, told the newspaper. “I knew she was going to be good. I don’t think I realized how good she was going to be at the time.”
Ian loved going to Kennywood with his mother, Schuchert said. “He loved roller coasters and all those crazy rides.”
“His father is also really distraught and has been taking care of the arrangements which will be held in Pittsburgh. That’s where most of the family is located,” Schuchert said.
Overmier lived with his girlfriend in Manhattan, and is survived by a half sister, his uncle said.
“Ian was always a happy-go-lucky kid, he was very outdoorsy and loved to play soccer,” Schuchert said. “He loved hiking and being outside. During the first part of the pandemic when restaurants were closing there was no work for him. So with all that free time he just started traveling and going to places all over and being outside.”
He added, “Everyone is pretty much having a hard time. Ian was a good kid.”