Police in Florida are searching for Sean Petrozzino (pictured above) in connection with the double murder of his parents. The 30-year-old Orange County resident has reportedly been on the run since Tuesday, and authorities say he’s armed with a gun.
Now the twist: Petrozzino is a quadruple amputee who uses prosthetic legs and has only part of one hand. His story once inspired many in South Florida:
As a teenager growing up in South Florida, Sean Petrozzino made headlines with his upbeat attitude after bacterial meningitis and more than a dozen surgeries ravaged his body.
Bacteria destroyed his hands, feet and parts of his limbs.
The sophomore clarinetist — a multiple amputee at 16 — touched many with his positive outlook, prompting donations of a voice-command laptop, wheelchair ramps and a specially equipped van.
On Wednesday, Petrozzino, now 30, made headlines again — this time being called a dangerous, gun-toting “person of interest” in the fatal shootings of his parents in their east Orange County home.
The bodies of Petrozzino’s parents, whom he’d recently moved in with following a separation from his wife in Georgia, were found at their home on Tuesday. Petrozzino is believed to be getting around in his father’s red Toyota Camry, which is also missing.
The gun-toting Petrozzino shouldn’t be considered any less dangerous because of his amputations, a prosthetics expert told the Orlando Sentinel, as “handless people have the ability to fire weapons without special devices.”