….he didn’t…
Robert D. Betts, the father of Connor D. Betts, was unaware that his son’s death was being used to discredit Sunday’s mass shooting when Newsweek contacted him by telephone on Monday.
“The names are just a coincidence,” Robert D. Betts told Newsweek. “He died five years ago in a construction accident. It’s unfortunate that people are linking my son’s death to the Ohio shooting.”
Robert D. Betts on Monday told Newsweek his son’s death was well documented by journalists in 2014.
Connor D. Betts was killed on February 19, 2014, in South Windsor, Connecticut, after being electrocuted when attempting to clean out snow from the dump truck he was driving, according to NBC Connecticut, who reported the story back in February 2014.
Witnesses at the time said when the open-box bed of the dump truck was raised to clean out the snow, the bed made contact with live wires and energized the vehicles.
“The driver [Connor D. Betts] had exited the vehicle and made contact with his energized truck and was stricken and went down,” South Windsor Police Lieutenant Scott Custer told NBC Connecticut in 2014.
Lloyd Folsom, Jr., 55, the owner of Folsom Construction, jumped out of his truck to help Connor D. Betts but was also electrocuted when he too touched the vehicle. Paramedics were unable to save either man. NBC Connecticut’s reporting matched what Robert D. Betts told Newsweek via telephone on Monday.
# # #