(NewsNation) — Maine State Police called Joseph Walker a “hero” after he tried to stop the Maine shootings suspect, Walker’s father told NewsNation’s Elizabeth Vargas.
Joseph Walker was the manager working at Schemengees Bar and Grille when the shooter attacked Wednesday night. Investigators told Walker’s wife he died after trying to go after the gunman with a long-blade knife.
“They told her my son was a hero. (He) took a long-blade knife and tried to go after the gunman to stop him from shooting anybody else in the pool hall, grille area. I don’t know where he picked the knife up from. I just know they said a long-blade knife because the gunman shot him and killed him,” Joseph’s father, Leroy Walker, told Vargas.
Leroy Walker said it sounds like something his son would do to help others.
“I am proud of him. He was brought up that way. It was always to defend himself and his family. These people have been his family for a lot of years now working at Schemengees. He loved them, and he wasn’t going to let it continue if he could stop it,” Leroy Walker said.
Leroy Walker said he waited 14 hours in agony before receiving the worst news a parent could receive. He heard from a woman who was at the bar that his son was shot, but he couldn’t get any information from the hospitals. It wasn’t until late Thursday morning that Maine State Police delivered the devastating news.
He’s critical of Maine State Police for leaving the families of some victims without answers for so long.
“I felt empty. Then I felt like why did they take 14 hours to tell us. I could not figure that out. It was in my mind all morning, all day. That’s why I didn’t have time to think about anything else. Because I was thinking about: Is my son is alive? Is he dead? When in the hell is somebody going to come and tell the family?” Leroy Walker said.
Leroy Walker said it was a “nightmare” for families like his to wait to learn what happened to their loved ones.
“All of us prayed all night, cried all night, cried all morning,” he said, later adding, “Nobody should have to sit through this. There should be an emergency number that you can call and talk to somebody with the state police department that can give you answers. These people do not know what they’re doing to take care of the public that’s waiting and hurting the way these families and my family had to deal with. It’s terrible.”
For the Walker family, Leroy said they knew Joseph was gone when Maine State Police called his daughter-in-law and said they needed to speak with her.
“We knew it when they said they were going to come and talk to us. There was no getting around it. We knew it,” Leroy Walker said.
A manhunt remains underway for the suspected gunman identified as Robert Card, who opened fire at a bowling alley and a bar in Lewiston on Wednesday evening, killing at least 18 people and injuring 13 more.