Joplin shooting suspect has mental health issues, dad says

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JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) — The father of a southwest Missouri man charged in weekend shootings that left six people and two dogs wounded said his son has had mental health issues and that he believes he was suffering a psychotic episode.

Tom Mourning Sr. said his son, 26-year-old Tom Mourning II, was having "a schizophrenic- or bipolar-type event," The Joplin Globe (http://bit.ly/2bg4Oi9 ) reported. The younger Mourning is jailed on $1 million bond on multiple counts of armed criminal action, first-degree felony assault and unlawful use of a weapon. No attorney is listed for him in online court records.

Tom Mourning Sr. said he was granting the interview to the Globe because he wants the community to know that his son was not in his right mind at the time.

"Tom thought people were following him," the father said. "He was having this thing again."

Tom Mourning Sr. said his son's mental health issues first surfaced about five years ago when he checked himself into a suburban Houston hospital "because he knew he wasn't right," the father said. Soon afterward, he moved to Missouri, where he stole a U.S. Army transport bus in Springfield and drove it to St. Louis to see the Arch. He pleaded guilty to lesser charges and was placed on probation.

The father said his son returned to school, got a job and a girlfriend and seemed to be doing better. But concerns again arose earlier this month when Tom Mourning II told his father that he was pawning a handgun to pay for a trip to a Washington, D.C., protest rally after a breakup with his girlfriend.

The father told the Globe that he was awakened early Saturday to his son's arriving home from the trip. He said his son fired shots, kicked in the door to the father's bedroom and walked in holding a semi-automatic carbine rifle. The father admonished his son to "stop this" and that he could "hurt somebody." Eventually the father was able to run to a convenience store and called police around 5 a.m.

Police said officers were preparing to stop Tom Mourning II around 5:10 a.m. when he started shooting at an Immanuel Lutheran Church van, which was on its way to a comfort dog ministry meeting. Four people and two dogs inside the van were hurt along with a couple in another vehicle. The father expressed relief that no one was killed.

"I'm sure that when Tom gets back to a state of coherence, he's going to try to reach out to those people to apologize because that's who Tom is," he said.