SEATTLE, Wash. (Metro) -- The father of Ian Stawicki, the gunman who killed five people in Seattle before talking his own life last month, says his 41-year-old son had begun to "drift" mentally, but he never expected him to turn violent.
Walter Stawicki tells Q13fox.com his eldest son had never been diagnosed with mental illness, but was a manic-depressive who had trouble in grade school, didn't make it through Army boot camp and recently had begun to get worse.
The elder Stawicki says he tried to steer Ian toward help for his mental condition, but couldn't force him to get it.
The devastated father says he now wishes he had lied and reported his son had been violent, to force him into mental health treatment.
Ian Stawicki gunned down five victims at the Café Racer coffeehouse on May 30th, then killed a woman in the First Hill neighborhood, before committing suicide as police closed on him.
Café Racer Chef Leonard Meuse is the lone survivor of the carnage.
