This browser does not support the Video element.
Stepmother of Wade Michael Page shocked by shooting
Stepmother of Wade Michael Page shocked by shooting
DENVER (AP) -- The stepmother of 40-year-old Wade Michael Page -- a white supremacist who gunned down six people at the Sikh Temple in Oak Creek remembers her son as a "gentle, kind, loving child, little boy and teenager.''
"He had such potential to do something wonderful with his life," Laura Page said.
Laura Page says she was Wade Michael Page's stepmother. The 67-year-old from Denver says Page was 10 when she married his father, Jesse Page. Wade Michael Page lost his mother at age 13, and lived with his grandmother in the late 90s at a home in Littleton, before he moved back in with his father and stepmother.
Laura Page said 1999 was the last time she heard from Wade Michael Page. This week, she heard about him.
"I'm totally devastated. His father is devastated. We're pretty much in shock. I loved him. He was a precious little boy and that's what my mind keeps going back to," Laura Page said.
Page said both she and Jesse Page, who are now divorced, are devastated by the actions of their son. She said words can't describe her family's pain.
"My heart goes out to those people. I am as devastated for them. All I can do is put them in my prayers," Laura Page said.
Laura Page said she will help investigators try to understand how a 1987 graduate of Littleton High School and a former Army man became a man seen in front of a swastika on his Facebook page.
"We don't know how this happened, or where it came from. Wade was a beautiful, loving, gentle child and teenager," Laura Page said.
Laura Page said she believes something from Wade Michael Page's time in the military caused his radical behavior change, but she says she'll never know for sure. For now, Laura Page said she is trying to focus on memories of Wade Michael Page's youth, and wonder whether there was anything she could have done.
"To go in this God-awful direction is mind boggling," Laura Page said.
Oak Creek police shot and killed Wade Michael Page on Sunday to end his rampage at the Sikh Temple. Three people critically injured in the shooting remain hospitalized -- including an Oak Creek police lieutenant.
CLICK HERE for more Sikh Temple shooting coverage via FOX6Now.com.