The stepfather of a man charged with killing his 70-year-old mother while she was in a hospital said the man had a long history of erratic and violent behavior he blamed on post-traumatic stress disorder from his time in the military.
Bob Ferriere said that Travis Frink, of Warwick, Rhode Island, struggled for the past decade with PTSD after he returned from the military with a traumatic brain injury.
He said when Frink was not on his medication he would go ‘wacko,’ beating people up and threatening others with a gun, even jumping into a river naked.
Travis Frink, 48, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of his 70-year-old mother, Pamela Ferriere, on Tuesday in the intensive care unit at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire
‘As long as he was taking his medicine for PTSD, he was all right. When he got off the medicine, he would go wacko,’ Ferriere said in a phone interview. ‘He beat people up. He would threaten people. He got locked up. He lost his job three or four times because he wouldn’t take his medicine.’
Frink is charged with fatally shooting his mother, Pamela Ferriere, on Tuesday at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, where she was being treated for an aneurysm. He has pleaded not guilty to murder.
Bob Ferriere insisted Frink got along well with his mother and they had a ‘good relationship.’ Over the past four years, he said, the couple thought Frink’s mental health issues had ‘been resolved,’ and a week ago Frink had gone with his three children to visit his mother in the hospital.
Travis Frink (left) has pleaded not guilty to the first degree murder of his mother Pamela Ferriere (right). Pamela’s husband Bob Ferriere says his stepson has PTSD and would go ‘wacko’ if he didn’t take his medication
‘I took them all downstairs in the cafeteria. We had lunch together and had a great time,’ Ferriere said. ‘Everything was all hunky-dory until the 12th.’
It was a completely different story Tuesday when Frink went to visit her. With Bob Ferriere in the room, Frink asked to spend some time alone with his mother, authorities said, and she said it was OK.
As Bob Ferriere was leaving the room, he heard her shout or scream, then turned and saw Frink pointing a gun at her, according to an affidavit. After several shots were fired, Frink walked out of the room without saying anything, Ferriere told police.
‘No one in this God-given world knows why he did it. I can’t tell you why he did it,’ Bob Ferriere said, adding the only possibility was the PTSD, based on his past behavior.
Frank’s stepfather Bob Ferriere (pictured above) saw Frink pointing a gun at his wife and heard several shots before Frink walked out of the room silently
Ferriere said he believes Frink suffered from PTSD from his time in the Marines and had a traumatic brain injury. But he didn’t know when he served nor how he might have gotten injured. He also did not say what medications Frink was taking.
‘He had 10 years of fighting PTSD,’ Ferriere said. ‘When he didn’t take his medicine, he went berserk.’
A spokesman for the U.S. Marines did not respond to a request to confirm Frink’s military service or his injuries.
Ferriere said he believes Frink suffered from PTSD from his time in the Marines and had a traumatic brain injury
Ferriere said he had already forgiven his stepson though he would accept a court’s verdict of life in prison or even death for him.
In 2013, Frink’s ex-wife and her three-year-old son were found dead inside a running car. Police ruled out foul play at the time and suspected that alcohol had played a role.
Joanne Conroy, the president of Dartmouth-Hitchcock, praised her staff for its response and said everyone had taken part in several active-shooter trainings in the past.
She said the medical center planned a town hall meeting for employees Wednesday to discuss next steps as workers recover from the ‘traumatic event.’
First responders, doctors, staff, patients, and others wait near the main entrance of Dartmouth Hitchock Medical Center during the active shooter incident on Tuesday
Attorney General Gordon MacDonald said the 48-year-old Frink signed into the medical center’s visitor center just after 1pm Tuesday and went to the intensive care unit. Soon after, Lebanon police received a call about shots fired in in the intensive care unit.
‘The facts gathered to this point reveal that the purpose of Mr. Frink’s visit to the hospital today was to kill his mother,’ MacDonald said, adding that the crime scene was still being investigated and that more than one shot had been fired. ‘No other patients, visitors or staff were physically injured as a result of the incident today.’
Frink was detained as he tried to leave the grounds of Dartmouth-Hitchcock, authorities said.
Frink was detained as he tried to leave the grounds of Dartmouth-Hitchcock in a grey Ford Escape (pictured above)
Rhode Island state police said the shooting suspect’s car had Rhode Island plates so police in New Hampshire reached out to the state’s Fusion Center, an information center under the command of the state police that also involves representatives from local, state and federal agencies. The center helped identify the suspect as a Rhode Island resident.
Frink’s Facebook page shows he got engaged last December. His LinkedIn page includes a long list of positions in computer systems administration and technical support jobs for companies in Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York and Massachusetts, including IBM, Cigna and most recently, United Natural Foods.
Several of Frink’s neighbors in Warwick said he mostly kept to himself. An uncle of Frink’s said he was ‘into karate.’