Jeremy Richman, the father of Avielle Richman, one of 20 first-grade students and six educators killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook School massacre, was found dead of an apparent suicide at Edmond Town Hall early Monday, police said. 

Police said the death of Richman, 49, appears to be a suicide. The office of the chief state medical examiner is investigating the exact cause.

Richman was found by an electrician working in the Main Street building about 7 a.m., police said. His death is the third apparent suicide in a week in which the victim was tied to a mass shooting at a U.S. school.

“He was a brokenhearted person, as we all are,” Neil Heslin, whose 6-year-old son, Jesse Lewis, was killed at Sandy Hook, told The Courant Monday. “It’s sad. Just no words.”

Heslin, who said he got to know Richman well after the shooting, said the grief never goes away. “I’m not suicidal, but I can definitely see how some people would be that way with the traumatic loss. “I know Jeremy struggled.”

Scientist father forms foundation

Richman, a scientist who led the charge on mental health issues with his wife, Jennifer Hensel, in the wake of the shooting, had an office for the Avielle Foundation at Edmond Town Hall. The foundation pushed for brain research into the origins of violent behavior in the brain.

“Our hearts are shattered, and our heads are struggling to comprehend. Jeremy was a champion father, husband, neuroscientist and, for the past seven years, a crusader on a mission to help uncover the neurological underpinnings of violence through the Avielle Foundation, which he and his wife... founded after the death of their daughter, Avielle, at Sandy Hook Elementary School," the foundation said in a statement. “Jeremy was deeply devoted to supporting research into brain abnormalities that are linked to abnormal behavior and to promoting brain health. Tragically, his death speaks to how insidious and formidable a challenge brain health can be and how critical it is for all of us to seek help for ourselves, our loved ones and anyone who we suspect may be in need.”

The foundation vowed they would continue Richman’s work “because, as Jeremy would say, we have to.”

While many Sandy Hook families focused on gun issues after the deadly shooting, just weeks after the tragedy, Richman was among the first to go to the Connecticut state legislature calling for fixing a broken mental health care system and removing the stigma from psychiatric illness.

“We must act to ensure this doesn’t happen again,” he told lawmakers in the January 2013 hearing.

Those who knew Richman said he remained dedicated to the foundation’s mission before his death.

“He had such a clear purpose of what he wanted to do to honor his daughter,” said a family member of one of the Sandy Hook shooting victims, who asked not to be identified. “I’m just shocked. I’m sitting in my car right now crying. The foundation was doing really important work and was doing such good things.”

Richman is survived by his wife and two children, born after the Sandy Hook shooting.

Richman left his job as a researcher at the pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim to dedicate himself to the foundation. Richman had a doctorate with experience in neuroscience and neuropsychopharmacology and Hensel is a multidisciplinary scientist with a master’s in pathobiology.

This month, Richman hosted an event at Edmond Town Hall with a researcher, Brené Brown, who focuses on vulnerability and courage. It was the third event he had organized and among the large crowd were other families of Sandy Hook shooting victims.

Richman spoke last week at Florida Atlantic University’s 2019 Violence Summit.

Richman talked with an interviewer from Florida Atlantic University on Facebook last week when he visited the Florida school and talked about how you can “change the world” with a deeper understanding of violence and aggressive behavior.

He urged support for neuroscience research and for people to engage with people and have “conversations that aren’t necessarily comfortable.”

“She was one of the 20 kids who that was murdered in the classrooms,’’ Richman said about his daughter during the conversation.

“That changed everything. It’s such a shock to the system, that you just feel displaced, like the world is spinning and you are not and you are just going to get thrown off of it. We came to the idea that we were going to create a foundation in her honor.”

Richman talking optimistically, spoke of the importance of neuroscience research into violence. “We really need to seek out and understand what it means to be humane.”

Richman was also involved with Sandy Hook Promise, another foundation that started in the wake of the Newtown shooting. The organization, and its founding members, Nicole Hockley and Mark Barden, who had children killed in the shooting, declined to comment Monday on Richman’s death.

A third suicide tied to mass shooting

In the past week, two Parkland, Fla., school shooting survivors died from apparent suicides, spurring immediate calls for increased mental health resources for those impacted by these shootings.

Parkland Mayor Christine Hunschofsky said Monday that community leaders, government officials, parents, police and others held an emergency meeting Sunday after a second Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student apparently killed himself over the weekend. That came a week after a recent graduate killed herself after her family said she suffered from survivor’s guilt.

The Feb. 14, 2018, shooting at the 3,200-student school killed 14 students and three staff members and wounded 17 others.

Richman’s daughter, Avielle, was one of the 20 first-grade students killed when Adam Lanza opened fire in the Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14, 2012. Six educators were also killed.

Her parents on the foundation’s website said Avielle had a long list of hobbies, including soccer, horseback riding, fishing, art, hiking, cooking, Barbies, and playing as ‘Bombs Galore,’ the superhero persona she created. She loved fireflies and was described as a “connoisseur of parks and playgrounds."

‘It’s overwhelming...’

Pat Llodra, who was Newtown’s first selectman at the time of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, was returning from vacation when she learned of Richman’s death.

“My heart is actually broken for his family,” Llodra told The Courant. “It’s overwhelming and difficult to comprehend.”

Llodra said it’s often impossible to know what’s going through the mind of someone who has experienced the kind of loss that Richman had.

“Trauma makes us all vulnerable and fragile,” she said.

Town officials, some of whom visited Edmond Town Hall Monday morning, were shaken by news of Richman’s death.

“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," said Newtown First Selectman Daniel Rosenthal in a statement. “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.”

When Lorrie Rodrigue, Newtown’s superintendent of schools, first heard what had happened Monday, she said she quietly reached out to school administrators to make them aware and put crisis counselors on standby before the story made the news.

Some students in Newtown High School worked with Jeremy Richman as interns, she said.

“It’s devastating to our entire community,” she said. “It obviously is something that really deeply saddens everyone who has worked with Jeremy Richman and the Avielle Foundation, the staff and students. It’s heartbreaking to everyone here. His work was very important. After a while, this just becomes harder and harder for everyone.”

Some people sought comfort in the sanctuary of Newtown Congregational Church, on the hill behind the old Meeting House. Rev. Kristen Provost Switzer said these gathering spaces have grown out of the community’s need for healing, reflection and peace, a need that changes but never goes away due to the complicated nature of grief and trauma. Now in the wake of Richman’s death, she said, Newtown will continue to show the world its capacity for resilience and compassion.

“I think we are in uncharted waters, and I think this is a time we can rely on community to help us navigate these waters,” Switzer said. “It’s true that even as we’re hurting deeply as a community right now, and have been for quite a while, at least from a faith perspective we know that God delights in community and that our communities make us stronger.”

Officials have been concerned the toll of the Sandy Hook shooting might takes years to be fully felt.

“Mental health professionals have told us the impact of Sandy Hook... you’re not gonna see the full impact of that incident until years later,” Police Chief James Viadero said. “We’re kind of looking at that now and it’s come to fruition.”

Like Viadero, Sen. Richard Blumenthal said Richman’s loss shows how the pain of a tragedy like the Sandy Hook shooting can persist.

“My heart breaks for this family, which has already endured so much,” Blumenthal said Monday, minutes after leaving a forum in New Britain on gun violence in schools. “This is a gut punch. I came to know his family after Sandy Hook, I attended the funeral. My prayers go out to them. The cascading harm done by that savage, unspeakable act reminds us of the trauma that’s caused – and the after-effects.”

When asked what Richman’s suicide says about the struggle between gun control and Second Amendment rights, Blumenthal replied that it’s too early to say.

"We have no idea as to what precipitated this death,” he said. “Right now my thoughts and heart are with the family. “

U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, who has been an outspoken proponent for stricter gun laws since the Newtown shooting, said he was devastated by Richman’s death. He said he had just seen Richman in recent weeks.

“My god. This is awful, horrible, devastating news. Jeremy was a good friend and an unceasing advocate for better research into the brain’s violence triggers. He was with me in my office two weeks ago, excited as could be about the Avielle Foundation’s latest amazing work,” Murphy said on social media.

U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes, whose district includes Newtown, said she, too, had just met with Richman about his foundation’s work.

“The news of Jeremy Richman’s death is heartbreaking. I recently met with Jeremy to learn about the Avielle Foundation, and was struck by how optimistic he was about the progress the foundation was making in understanding brain health. He spoke about how the foundation’s investments have led to broader study of brain chemistry and violence," Hayes said in a statement.

She echoed others that said Richman’s death and the apparent suicide of two students in Parkland, Fla., shows “we must do more as a society to help victims of gun violence and their families grieve.”

Gov. Ned Lamont joined the others in grieving Richman’s death.

“Annie and I are heartbroken for the Richman family. Thoughts and prayers just don’t feel like enough in times like these. Words cannot even begin to express our sorrow,” Lamont said in a statement.

Courant staff writers Dave Altimari, Christine Dempsey, Rebecca Lurye and Neil Vigdor contributed to this story.