NORTON, MASS. (WHDH) - When 38-year-old Philip Horner was arrested for stabbing a tow-truck driver who allegedly ran over his mother, he got one phone call and dialed his half-sister in Maryland.
“I’m in shock. I’m still in shock,” said Horner’s half-sister, Sheryl Leonard. “I can’t believe this is going on. It absolutely blows my mind.”
Leonard says Horner had just left a doctor’s appointment Wednesday with his mother.
“He was walking a little in front of her. He turned around to find out where she was, (and) at that point, he saw her being crushed under the wheels of the tow truck,” Leonard said.
What happened after that, Leonard says her brother had no excuse.
“He blacked out, he says,” Leonard said. “He says he doesn’t remember anything.”
Horner’s half-brother says that while he can’t explain why Horner acted as he did, be can vouch that he was very close with his mother.
“His whole life just crashed right then and there, the only person he had taking care of him,” Mark Horner said.
Philip Horner’s family said he had drug problems in the past and recently got a devastating physical diagnosis.
Now, as they try to support their loved one, they’re also thinking of the tow-truck driver who was so badly hurt.
“I just want his family to know he’s in our prayers and we feel really bad this had to happen,” Mark Horner said.
(Copyright (c) 2024 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)