Sean Petrozzino, a quadruple amputee, who was wanted for questioning in the murder of his parents in Orange County, Florida, has been identified as the man who killed himself during a traffic stop in Memphis on Monday night, police said.
Petrozzino, 30, was pulled over by police for an illegal U-turn he made in a 2012 Toyota Camry he was driving in a Binghamton neighborhood on Vandalia Street near Sam Cooper Boulevard. As police approached the car, he shot himself.
The Orange County, Florida Sheriff’s Department confirmed Tuesday morning that their detectives are on their way to Memphis.
“Local detectives have been notified that a death investigation being conducted by Memphis Police Department may be connected to the search for Sean Petrozzino,” the Sheriff’s department spokeswoman Jane Watrel said in an email Tuesday.
She said the Orange County Sheriff’s Department named Sean Petrozzino as a person of interest in the shooting death of his parents, Nancy Petrozzino, 64, and Michael Petrozzino, 63. Investigators said his parents were found dead from gunshot wounds inside their Florida home on Nov. 4.
Deputies went to the family’s home after Nancy Petrozzino’s school, where she was a longtime teacher, asked authorities to check on her when she didn’t show up for school last week.
Detectives said the Petrozzino’s son, Sean, was missing along with his father’s red Toyota Camry.
Sean Petrozzino was spotted in a surveillance video at a Wells Fargo ATM in Orlando last Tuesday and investigators believed he was in Jupiter or Coral Springs area of South Florida. It is not known why or when he arrived in Memphis.
Authorities said bacterial meningitis destroyed his hands, feet and parts of his limbs when he was a teenager.
The Florida media chronicled his struggles and triumphs when after a dozen surgeries he became a multiple amputee at 16 when the disease ravaged his body.
In a recent story in the Orlando Sentinel, Jerry L. Saunders, chief executive officer of ABC Prosthetics and Orthotics in Orlando, told the paper that handless people have the ability to fire weapons without special devices.
Memphis police have not released details what happened in the incident with Petrozzino Monday night.