The 43-year-old son of a woman who was killed during Rock Hill's St. Patrick's Day Parade in March shot himself during an encounter with police in Rock Hill on Wednesday, June 17, according to MudHudson News and the Times Herald-Record.
Richard Bernstein, who originally grew up in the Sullivan County hamlet of Rock Hill, was the son of Susan McCormick, police say.
Left: Richard Bernstein in his Collier County mugshot. Via the Collier County Sheriff's Office.
McCormick was a 56-year-old Rock Hill resident who died after she fell off a float in the parade and was run over on March 14.
Bernstein, a resident of Naples, Florida, spoke at his mother's funeral; the Times Herald-Record has photos of him at the ceremony.
In May Bernstein was arrested in Collier County, Florida on criminal charges related to having a sexual relationship with a young teenage girl, according to the Naples Daily News.
Bernstein reportedly jumped bail and fled to Rock Hill, where he was being tracked by U.S. Marshals Service's Fugitive Task Force, according to MidHudson News.
At 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, the Sullivan County Sheriff's Office received a call reporting that Bernstein was armed, possibly with a sniper rifle, on Katrina Falls Road in Rock Hill.
Around 7 p.m., police found Bernstein in the backyard of a house at 104 Katrina Falls Road. When police ordered Bernstein to drop his weapon, a handgun, he turned it on himself, according to MidHudson News:
“He was armed with a handgun. He was told to drop the gun at which time he pointed the gun at his own head and shot himself,” said Sullivan Undersheriff Eric Chaboty.
Multiple news outlets are reporting that police think that Bernstein was planning to avenge his mother's death by confronting the man who was driving the parade float that ran her over.
