The mother of a man who shot himself after smashing his car into a barrier outside the Capitol says she believes he suffered from brain trauma from playing football.
Richard A. York III., 29, from Delaware, drove into the barrier at East Capitol Street and 2nd Street in Washington at 4am on Sunday before firing shots into the air and then turning the gun on himself.
His mother Tamara Cunningham said his high school football career left him with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, commonly known as CTE, which has affected many professional and amateur football players.
York suffered a number of head injuries and concussions in his playing days, and while a diagnosis can only be made after a post mortem, Ms Cunningham has already requested one from a private doctor and local coroner’s office.
She told the Guardian: ‘Something was going on for a while. And it was progressively getting worse.’
In confirmed CTE cases, friends and family have often suspected the condition before it was officially diagnosed because of their erratic and aggressive behaviour.
Richard A. York pictured on his Facebook page back in 2017. The suspect has a lengthy criminal record going back to 2012
Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger said that investigators believe that York set his own car on fire prior to taking his own life
A motive for York’s actions is still being investigated by police who are probing whether it was politically motivated.
Ms Cunningham said she did not believe her son was especially political or a Donald Trump supporter, after police questioned whether it could be tied to the FBI raid on the former president’s Mar-a-Lago home.
She said: ‘We’re just not that kind of family.’
York has a criminal record mainly in Pennsylvania going back as far as 2012 including burglary and assault.
But Ms Cunningham insisted to NBC: ‘We didn’t know how much he was hurting.
‘He was a good person. He loved me very, very much.’
Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger told the media in a press conference that officers who approached York following the crash did not hear him say anything.
Manger said: ‘The subject has a criminal history over the past 10 years or so, but nothing that, at this point, would link him to anything here at the Capitol.’
York drove into the barrier at East Capitol Street and 2nd Street in Washington at 4am on Sunday
In February 2017, York was charged with burglarizing a pharmacy in Hellerton, Pennsylvania. He was accused of stealing several controlled substances in the crime.
York was charged with burglary (first-degree felony), criminal trespassing (second-degree felony), theft by unlawful taking, receiving stolen property, criminal mischief, possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia
In January 2020, York viciously assaulted a co-worker while the two were in the victim’s home in Pennsylvania.
York accused his colleague of contacting the suspect’s mother and proceeded to beat him, split his TV in half and force him to run from his own home in shorts and a t-shirt in 39 degree weather, reported WFMZ at the time.
His legs were blue and his face showed extensive swelling following the attack.
The station’s report says that after the victim fled the home, York proceeded to vandalize the home further. The pair had been working together on roofing projects in Philadelphia at the time.
He was charged with aggravated assault, single misdemeanor counts of simple assault and criminal mischief and a summary count of harassment in that incident.
Other crimes included guilty pleas for disorderly conduct in December 2016, making terroristic threats in January 2012, and possession of a controlled substance in February 2012.
For the latter two arrests, York did not serve jail time until November 2013 until he failed a drug test during his probation. He was sentenced to between a year and two years in prison for the offenses.
No one else was injured as York slammed his car into the barricade and began firing wildly
Sunday’s incident happened just before 4 a.m. at a vehicle barricade set up at East Capitol Street and 2nd Street in Washington.
Capitol Police said that York crashed into the barricade and that as he was getting out of the car, the vehicle became engulfed in flames.
York then opened fire, firing several shots into the air as police approached. He then turned the gun on himself and was later pronounced dead.
No other injuries were reported and police do not believe any officers returned fire.
Police said in a statement: ‘It does not appear the man was targeting any member of Congress’ and that investigators are examining the man’s background as they work to try to discern a motive.
Both the House and Senate are in recess and very few staff members work in the Capitol complex at that hour.
The shooting comes at a time when law enforcement authorities across the country are facing an increasing number of threats and federal officials have warned about the potential of violent attacks on government buildings in the days since the FBI’s search of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
The attack is reminiscent of an incident when a man drove a vehicle into two Capitol Police officers at a checkpoint in April 2021, killing Officer William ‘Billy’ Evans, 41, who was an 18-year veteran of the force.
Sunday’s incident is reminiscent of a 2021 attack (pictured) when a man drove a vehicle into two Capitol Police officers at a checkpoint in April 2021, killing Officer William ‘Billy’ Evans
The driver, Noah Green, 25, came out of the car with a knife and was shot to death by a third police officer after he lunged at him. Investigators believe Green had been delusional and increasingly having suicidal thoughts.
Evans, a father of two, grew up in North Adams, Massachusetts, a close-knit town of about 13,000 in the northwest part of the state.
His death came nearly three months after the January 6 rioting at the Capitol that left five people dead, including Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who died a day after the insurrection.
Barbed wire fencing had surrounded the Capitol for months after pro-Trump rioters stormed the building.
The fencing has since been removed and thousands of National Guard troops who had been deployed in response to the January insurrection have since returned home, but many on Capitol Hill remain on edge.
The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is a United States-based suicide prevention network of over 160 crisis centers that provides 24/7 service via a toll-free hotline with numbers 9-8-8. It is available to anyone in suicidal crisis or emotional distress.