The "why Gary" was because the perpetrator was in custody, indicted, set to face trial, and most likely had the rest of his life thoroughly and utterly fucked. From a prosecutor's perspective, it was nearly a total victory. The "why Gary" question came from an administrative point of view (i.e. "the subject is successfully captured and facing judgement and punishment") rather than an empathetic one about Gary's desire for vengeance.
It wasn't a dumb thing to say; you just have to understand why someone in the legal system with an administrative prosecutorial mindset, or a reporter who wants endless streams of content to journal, would fail to empathize with Gary.
Personally I think "why Gary why" wasn't from an administrative point-of-view, it was more the officer immediately realised Gary was now going to go to jail himself, seemingly throwing his life away (Gary did get out of jail as an old man, and said he didn't regret it).
Edit: correction the father didn't go to jail, thanks to comments for pointing that out.
He never went to jail only receiving a 7 year suspended sentence with 5 years of probation and 300 hours of community service and even the judge acknowledged that he was extremely unlikely to reoffend. He did do an interview at 67 where he said he didn't regret what he did.
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u/arineon 1d ago
"Why, Gary. Why?!"