Kacy Walker said the man who investigators say fired at police Monday morning bears almost no resemblance to the son he raised.
That incident unfolded when authorities say 30-year-old Gabriel Walker opened fire at police during a rolling shootout along a block of Main Street in Rolesville. Walker remains locked up on a slew of charges.
"The system has failed us. Because this should have never gotten this far," Walker said.
Kacy Walker said the news of his son's arrest Monday didn't come as a surprise, and that his son had been dealing with serious mental health issues for several years.
"Everyone would say that he's a remarkable young man. But up until this point, you know, no one got a chance to see this side, the mentally ill side," he said.
On Monday, Gabriel Walker was arrested after a shootout with police, which ended without injury. He made his first court appearance virtually in Wake County on Tuesday, during which he declined to acknowledge the judge, with the exception of several "thumbs up" signs to various questions. Kacy Walker said his son began to have serious mental challenges three years ago, and they culminated with him losing his job.
"He lost his job about a year ago now, and it really has snowballed after that," he said.
Before that, Kacy Walker said his son was a well-regarded professional -- an Eagle Scout and North Carolina A&T State University graduate who worked for Duke Energy and had friends and a well-balanced life. About three years ago, he said, Gabriel's behavior grew increasingly erratic, and he started using drugs. Despite the family's effort to get him help -- and even have him committed -- nothing stuck.
"He was taken to the hospital, evaluated, and said that, you know, there was nothing they could do if he didn't want to help himself," Kacy Walker said.
ABC11 spoke with a mental health professional on Tuesday about how that situation could have unfolded.
"If he's doing well enough that they cannot involuntarily commit him, then the there's so many gaps for him to fall through, and once he is doing poorly enough that he qualifies for an involuntary commitment, it almost feels like it's too late," said Lwiza Escobar Garcia, a Wake County social worker who specializes in mental health.
Escobar Garcia said it's a situation that's seen far too often in her field, as concerns about mental health increase and the state's limited resources try to keep pace.
"It is, unfortunately, a very frequent occurrence where we're seeing that. And I think that most of us aren't realizing how close we are to that scenario," she said.