Hours before Carl Philbert drove a car loaded with propane tanks into an apartment building in Fort Pierce, his brother says Philbert told him he couldn’t handle stress piling up.
“I was trying to calm him down and talk to him,” said Junior Pierre, Philbert’s brother. Pierre spoke to WPTV via FaceTime.
Fort Pierce police say Philbert was targeting a woman in a downstairs apartment when he drove his car into the buildingTuesday, killing himself and displacing 18 people.
“He wasn’t making threats towards the family,” said Pierre.
Pierre lives in Maryland and said he spoke to his brother over the phone Tuesday morning because he was worried about him.
“It was basically him saying he doesn’t want to live anymore he can’t handle this anymore,” Pierre said.
Police said Philbert used to have a relationship with the woman. They believe he and the woman got into an argument Tuesday morning.
“It’s like it’s something that he planned out already,” said Pierre. “He never mentioned to me.”
Pierre said he’s heartbroken knowing that his brother could have done something like this.
“I just want to tell the family, I’m sorry for what happened. I’m sorry that it went down this way,” Pierre said.
Philbert was recently divorced and had a stalking injunction filed against him, according to court documents.
Engineers are working to make the apartment building structurally sound before allowing people to go back inside.