A good man in a bad place — that’s how the mother of Chad Setzer described her son a day after he was killed in a shootout with state police near Port Allegany.
“He was the kind of guy who would give you the shirt off his back,” said Vera Setzer of Austin in a phone interview.
Her voice was quiet and shaky, a reflection of her sadness and shock. “He was severely depressed,” she said.
Around 5:30 p.m. Monday, Chad Setzer was involved in a shootout with police, and was killed.
That isn’t how Vera Setzer hopes people will remember him.
“It was mental illness and drugs,” she said.
The devastated mother explained Setzer had been hospitalized last week for depression. He had threatened suicide, and his family called the police. He was taken to the hospital for a 72-hour hold.
“When he called me Friday, I said, ‘You can’t come out,’” Vera Setzer said.
Her son and his wife had split, and he was taking it very hard, the mother explained. Setzer’s wife had moved on, and had someone new in her life. While Chad Setzer was in the hospital, his mother had broken the news to him. Despite her wishes, the hospital released him with an admonition that he should go to drug rehab, Vera Setzer recounted.
He had a substance abuse issue, she acknowledged, but said she didn’t know what drug he might have used — and she maintained he wanted to get clean.
As his relationship with his former wife went downhill, Chad Setzer spiraled out of control, his mother said.
“They had a tumultuous marriage, but when you lose it, you lose it,” she said. “He was like a cannon ready to go off.”
Vera Setzer says she is feeling a lot of emotions right now, the foremost being anger.
“I’m mad at him,” she said. “He had four little children. He had no right. They needed him.”
She’s upset with the police as well, but said she doesn’t know all the details of what happened.
“I don’t understand why they couldn’t call one of us to come talk to him,” she said, crying softly.
“All I wanted was for everybody to be safe.”
Before ending the call, she asked that her son not be vilified.
“He wasn’t a bad boy. He did some bad things.”
