BENEDICTA, Maine (AP) – The parents of a young woman who police say was kidnapped during a violent rampage that left two people dead believe the gunman was furious at their daughter when he found out that she went to police saying he abducted and sexually assaulted her days earlier.
Rick and Kim Irish told The Associated Press that Anthony Lord had become obsessed with their 21-year-old daughter, Brittany Irish, before abducting her and attacking her on July 15, just two days before the shooting spree.
Because of his lengthy criminal record, Lord knew he would be going back to prison and didn’t care about the consequences, the parents said.
“He knows he was going to jail for life for what he did to Brittany … so he was just going to go out with a bang,” Rick Irish said during an interview Monday at the family’s home in Benedicta, where police say Lord fatally shot Brittany’s boyfriend, Kyle Hewitt, and shot and wounded her mother before kidnapping her early Friday.
Afterward, police say, Lord fled from the Irishes’ home and shot three other people, setting off a manhunt that shut down roads in parts of northern Maine and sent panic through several small, rural towns where violence is so rare that residents usually leave their homes unlocked.