A Sandy Hook Dad Finally Makes Peace With His Decision

Robbie Parker, father of Emilie Parker, 6, speaks about press conference just 24 hours after shooting
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 15, 2024 12:53 PM CDT
A Sandy Hook Dad Finally Makes Peace With His Decision
Robbie Parker, father of deceased Sandy Hook student Emilie Parker, testifies in Alex Jones' defamation trial in Waterbury, Connecticut, on Sept. 29, 2022.   (Brian A. Pounds/Hearst Connecticut Media Group via AP, Pool)

While bidders prepare to bid on Alex Jones' Infowars, one of the people targeted by the right-wing conspiracy theorist—Robbie Parker, dad of Emilie Parker, who was killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre at the age of 6—is preparing to release a book on the matter in December, entitled A Father's Fight: Taking On Alex Jones and Reclaiming the Truth About Sandy Hook. Parker spoke in advance of the book release to David Smith, who details for the Guardian what the Parker family's life was like before the mass shooting, how they found out Emilie had died, and their battle against Jones' conspiracy theories that put a target on their backs, as well as those of other victims' families.

  • Before the shooting: Parker recalls his extroverted little girl, an avid early reader who had a hard time going to bed because she had so many thing she was thinking about. She would tell Parker, "I have so many ideas in my head and I can't fall asleep until I get them out."

  • On finding out his daughter had been killed: Parker describes the conference room that parents were ushered into on the day of the shooting, and the shocking way they found out their child had died—then-Connecticut Gov. Dannel Molloy came in and started speaking as if the parents already knew their kids were gone. "What about the children that went to the hospital? What is their status?" his wife, Alissa, asked. Molloy, seeming surprised at the question, answered: "They have expired." "It was as if he hadn't been briefed that we hadn't been briefed," Parker says.
  • On 'the worst thing I could have done': Parker says he decided to speak to a reporter less than 24 hours after Emilie's death, to help release some of the intense media pressure around the case. Dozens of reporters and cameras showed up, however, and, "trying to calm himself, he recalls, he let out a weird half-laugh and smile towards some family members supporting him" as he prepared to speak about his daughter, Smith writes, adding: "That momentary chuckle and smile ... would haunt Parker for the next decade."
  • Conspiracy theories: That's because Jones hijacked that clip of Parker's nerve-driven gesture and played it over and over again on his Infowars show, accusing Parker and other parents of being "crisis actors"—suggesting their kids hadn't actually died.
  • Self-forgiveness: Parker blamed himself for the years of harassment that Sandy Hook families faced—until one day in court for one of Jones' proceedings, when the judge made Jones watch Parker's 2012 press conference. "Seeing [Jones'] reaction and me watching it again with a new light, I felt proud again," Parker says. "In that moment I could feel happy again that I had done it and I am glad that I did it. I was right there willing and ready to take it back from Alex Jones because it was never his."
Read the interview in full here. (More Sandy Hook stories.)

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