DAD OF SANDY HOOK VICTIM DIES IN APPARENT SUICIDE

Hartford — The father of Avielle Richman, one of the 20 students killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook School shooting, was found dead outside Newtown town hall early Monday, police said.

The death of Jeremy Richman, 49, appears to be suicide, police said. He was found when officers were called to the building about 7 a.m.

The office of the chief medical examiner is investigating the exact cause of death.

“This is a heartbreaking event for the Richman family and the Newtown Community as a whole, the police department’s prayers are with the Richman family right now, and we ask that the family be given privacy in this most difficult time,” said a spokesman for the department.

The father of a first-grade girl killed in the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School was discovered dead in an apparent suicide Monday morning at a town hall in Connecticut, police said.

Authorities said the body of Jeremy Richman, 49, was found at about 7 a.m. at Edmond Town Hall in Newtown, a Connecticut community that has been scarred by the tragic school shooting that left 20 students and six staff members dead. The victims included Richman’s daughter, 6-yearold Avielle Richman. Richman, who was studying the brain and violence, had an office at the town hall.

Police did not say how Richman died or what may have led to his death.

Lt. Aaron Bahamonde, a spokesman for the Newtown Police Department, told The Washington Post that Richman’s death “puts Newtown back into the spotlight again.”

“We certainly recognize the heartbreak that this is causing,” he said in a phone interview. “It’s a difficult situation that we’re all dealing with here and it’s a sad situation.”

Following reports that Richman had died, government officials and friends expressed their grief and offered condolences to the family.

Newtown First Selectman Daniel Rosenthal said there were “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,” Rosenthal said in a statement Monday to the Hartford 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.”