Tommy Sullivan Sr. speaks exclusively to News13

Tommy Sullivan, Sr. spoke exclusively with News13 about the ordeal his family has been through.

Sullivan and his attorney Scott Joye spoke with News13’s Thema Ponton at Joye’s law offices in Murrells Inlet.

Sullivan’s story started in February of 2007, when his 15-year-old son was hit and killed in Garden City.  Last year, a South Strand veterinarian, Dr. Rachel Easterly, pleaded guilty that she hit the boy, left the scene and left Tommy junior for dead.  Easterly is serving four years in a state prison.  In between those events in late 2007, the elder Sullivan broke into Easterly’s home and fired off shots.  No one was hit.  Last week, Sullivan appeared in court for that incident and the judge gave him five years probation.

Sullivan said, “It’s time to move forward now, it’s not time to keep dwelling on the past.”  He said he’s working as best he can to try and forgive Easterly.  “I think part of the healing process is maybe moving on, she has her life and I have my life and I have my life, there’s forgiveness in my heart and that’s where I think the healing process is really going to work.  I’m working on it really hard, everyday is a little bit better so, yeah I’m not nearly as angry as I was two years ago.“

Joye said Sullivan doesn’t fit most people’s definition of a criminal, he said there are good people who commit criminal acts and that’s who Thomas Sullivan Sr. Is. 

Sullivan, who said he’s going to see his probation officer this week, said he feels pretty relieved about the judge’s ruling.  He said being in court was nerve racking and tense.  But as he looks back on what his family has gone through since his son Tommy was killed, Sullivan said the time has been intense and heartbreaking.  “It’s tough I mean it really is not a day goes by that I don’t miss my son, but I have two other sons that really need their dad and I got to be there for them.  One of them is only, he’s only seven and the other one is thirteen, he knows a little bit more, but the younger one you know we have to handle him with kid gloves, they’re children, they don’t need to be brought into an adult world as quick as they’ve already been.“

Sullivan said he’s glad to be out on probation and doesn’t consider himself a criminal.  He said under normal circumstances he never would have gone to Easterly’s home, but the circumstances were not normal.  Sullivan said if he had to explain to Tommy about why he went to Easterly’s house that night with a gun; he would say he wasn’t the father he (Tommy) knows.  “It’s not the way I raised him, it’s not the way I raised any of my children, you know we’re good Christians and we try to be good Christians”

Sullivan said getting back to normal is something he and his family struggle to do everyday.  He said it’s time to heal and move on, but it’s difficult when he lives so close to the area where his son was killed.  “I say a prayer every time I go by there, I mean it’s right next to the church and I make the sign of the cross and I say a little prayer every time, there’s many a night I’ve sat there, just sat there crying, but that’s not going to help the situation at this point.  My son is interred at our church, so when I’m down there I go down and I see him, but it’s not same, you know.”

Joye said the one lesson he hopes everyone take away from Sullivan’s experiences is that if you need help, get it.  Joye said what happened to Tommy Sullivan Jr. Was too much weight for one person to carry and maybe if the elder Sullivan had gotten help for his grief, anguish, and anger, the shooting incident might not have happened.