WASHINGTON, March 25 (Xinhua) -- A father of a Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victim has died of apparent suicide, police in Newtown in the U.S. state of Connecticut said Monday.
The body of Jeremy Richman, a 49-year-old neuroscientist, was found in his office building on Monday, Newtown police said.
He was the father of six-year-old Avielle Richman, who was among 20 children and six adults killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, which took place in December 2012.
Police said they "will not disclose the method or any other details" of Richman's death, other than it does not appear to be suspicious.
"This is a heartbreaking event for the Richman family and the Newtown Community as a whole," Newtown Police spokesman Lt. Aaron Bahamonde said in a statement.
"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."
After the 2012 massacre, Richman co-founded the Avielle Foundation, a nonprofit named after Richman's daughter that focuses on violence prevention through research and community engagement.
"Our hearts are shattered, and our heads are struggling to comprehend," the foundation said.
The foundation called Richman "a champion father, husband, neuroscientist, and for the past seven years a crusader on a mission to uncover the neurological underpinnings of violence" through the Avielle Foundation, which he started with his wife, Jennifer Hensel.
"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," according to the foundation.
Richman's death is the third suicide in the past week connected with school shootings.
A student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland in the U.S. state of Florida has died in "what appears to be a suicide," CBS News reported Sunday, citing a police spokesman.
It was the second time within a week that a student from that school, where a shooting massacre on Feb. 14, 2018 killed 17 students and staff members, died by suicide.
A Coral Springs Police spokesman told CBS News that the student, who died Saturday night, was a juvenile and no further information will be released, adding that the death is still being investigated.
Sydney Aiello, a survivor of the school shooting, died at home last weekend in Coconut Creek, Florida, from a gunshot wound to the head, according to local authorities. Her funeral took place on Friday.
Aiello suffered from survivor's guilt and had recently been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, according to CNN, citing her mother, Cara.
Aiello had been on campus the day of the mass shooting, but was not in the building where the attack took place, Cara said.
The cheerleader graduated from high school a month after the shooting, but struggled to attend college classes because she was afraid of being in a classroom, according to media reports.
Police said there was "no indication at all" so far that the student's death was linked to the shooting or to Aiello's suicide. It has not been confirmed if the second student was in Marjory Stoneman Douglas at the time of the shooting.
The shooting that shook the nation was carried out by former Stoneman Douglas student Nikolas Cruz, then 19 years old. He was indicted on 17 counts of murder.
