Police: Motive may never be known for ambush of Lorain police officers

Hours after a man who shot at Lorain police, killing one and injuring two others, had been shot and killed by responding officers, he received a text from a friend. "Hey bud, crazy day in Lorain huh." Michael Parker, 28, of Lorain, was shot by Lorain police on July 23, less than half an hour after he shot Lorain officers Philip Wagner, Brent Payne and Peter Gale. Wagner, 35, of North Ridgeville, died the next day from his injuries. On Friday, the Lorain County Prosecutor's Office released the Elyria Police Department's full investigative report into Parker's shooting death, which was ruled justified. That report, though redacted, includes newly released interviews with Parker's family and friends in the days after the shooting. Those interviews do little to provide a motive for the ambush, but paint a picture of a man with right-wing political views, an affinity for firearms and a history of mental illness and head injuries. The text sent to Parker's phone after he already was dead was from a former co-worker at the United States Postal Service identified by police as Tom Tuttle. Parker worked for USPS for about eight months before being fired, according to the investigative report. A screenshotted text exchange between Tuttle and Parker that Parker had saved in his phone "appeared alarming," according to the report. In one conversation, Tuttle told Parker, "Nobody will know about this conversation, you will scare a lot of people with how you think, but since we think alike I know you mean no harm." Parker responded, "Oh I know that since you didn't hate me for saying Heil Hitler … believe me, I've done far worse (we'll) talk more in person later. Feel Free to keep texting though." Other text-message screenshots, according to the report, saw the men refer to each other as "besties" and talk about politics, including support of President Donald Trump. Tuttle texted Parker at 5:03 p.m. the day of the shooting about the "crazy day in Lorain." By then, Parker had been dead for nearly four hours. When interviewed by Elyria police on July 28, Tuttle described Parker as "off," but he said he never expected him to do something like he did in the Colorado Avenue Industrial Park. He told officers he and Parker were "not best friends or anything," and that the last time they had spoken via text was in November 2024 during the election. He told investigators that when the shooting happened, Tuttle's coworkers suspected it may have been Parker — prompting Tuttle's text to his former coworker that evening. He told police he wished he had texted Parker sooner, as he may have been able to get information about the man's motive for the attack. Tuttle said he never heard Parker threaten anyone, express hatred, or speak or act violently toward anyone. "I wouldn't suspect Michael to hurt a fly," he said, according to the report. Parker was known for talking about guns, including high-powered rifles, with co-workers, which scared some of them, he said. When asked about the context of the screenshots of the texts between the two of them, Tuttle told officers he could not remember as it had been a couple years ago. Interviews with Parker's family, including his parents and brother, showed Parker had acted normally the day of the shooting, giving his family little information or motive to offer police. His mother, Ann Parker, told investigators her son was a student at Lorain County Community College studying mechanical engineering and that the last she heard from him was that he was going to "go to the chapel" at St. Anthony of Padua in Lorain around 1 p.m. the afternoon of the shooting. According to a timeline in the report, Parker loaded his 2007 Toyota Camry with supplies, including a cooler with soda and a gaming chair shortly before 11 a.m. that morning and left his home around 12:40 p.m. He went to St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church on the city's east side just before the shooting. Parker drove down River Bend Drive to where Wagner and Gale were parked for lunch at around 1:03 p.m. He shot Wagner in the head with a rifle through the window of Wagner's patrol vehicle, then repositioned his own vehicle in a gravel area off the south end of the cul-de-sac where he awaited the police response with various rifles, scopes and thousands of rounds of additional ammunition. Ann Parker told officers her son had recently bought a firearm from Fin Feather Fur Outfitters and that he planned to go to a cabin in Canada with his brother, Ryan, to join their father for vacation. Ryan Parker described his brother as cheerful when they went to a Cleveland Guardians game on July 19, and said the two discussed the plans for their upcoming trip to Canada. He said Michael Parker struggled to maintain consistent employment, but that he was able to buy and trade firearms through credit cards and at least one loan. He said he occasionally went with Michael to the Grand River shooting range, but said his brother went to the range about once a month by himself. He told officers his brother had sustained two head injuries in his youth, one from an accident involving a car trunk, another while sledding. After those accidents, Ryan Parker said Michael experienced neck pain, sensitivity to light and difficulty swallowing and that he sought treatment for from a chiropractor and therapist in Westlake. Parker's other brother, Andrew, told police that Michael left his employment at USPS on "bad terms," but offered little other details as the pair had not lived together since Andrew moved out in 2015 and they did not maintain regular contact. Ryan Parker told police he was unaware of any current medical or mental health diagnoses his brother may have had and denied knowing if his brother had thoughts of suicide or homicide or anti-government or extremist views. Lorain County Coroner Dr. Frank Miller said during a press conference in September that Parker had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and hospitalized in 2012 or 2013. Born in 1997, Parker would have been 15 or 16 years old at the time. Parker's mental health diagnosis would not have precluded him from legally purchasing the 10 firearms he had at the time of the attack. Under state and federal law, a mental health diagnosis does not bar a person from purchasing firearms unless they have been declared mentally incompetent or committed to a mental institution by a court. Parker's diagnosis was redacted from the report released Friday. In total, Parker was found with seven rifles, two pistols and one shotgun; of those, three rifles and the shotgun were purchased between March and July 2025. Alongside Parker's arsenal were two 50-pound containers of Tannerite in his sedan's backseat. Often used as an explosive target, it is not regulated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and is legal to buy in Ohio as separate components, though mixing it together to form the explosive without a permit is a felony. Parker was shot 12 times by at least five Lorain officers, according to the report, including Brent Payne's brother, Detective Craig Payne. Those officers were cleared of any wrongdoing by the Lorain County Prosecutor's Office on Friday. Prosecutor Tony Cillo announced he would not present charges to a grand jury in Parker's death. He ruled the responding officers' use of force against Parker as "lawful and appropriate under the circumstances," according to a letter announcing the decision posted to the prosecutor's social media and website on Friday. A motive may never be clear, Elyria Police Chief James Welsh said. "I think everybody was looking for some hard proof as to what his thinking was," Welsh said. "But, you know, sometimes people just do bad things. I think this guy, especially that day, had made an evil plan and followed through with it." Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.