On the morning of December 14, 2012, six-year-old Emilie Parker – a funny, curious little chatterbox new to Sandy Hook Elementary School – was gunned down alongside 25 of her teachers and fellow classmates in what is still the deadliest mass shooting at an elementary school in US history.

In the wake of such unimaginable loss, her father Robbie reluctantly became the ‘face’ of the families seeking some kind of answer for the senseless shooting of their children.

And he has now revealed in excruciating detail how, in the process, he also became the target for years of vile lies, death threats, and terrifying physical confrontations from conspiracy theorists convinced the massacre was a hoax.

In his new book, A Father’s Fight, Parker describes his unfolding horror as Alex Jones, the owner of Infowars, falsely accused him of being a ‘crisis actor’ who had fabricated not just the devastating death of his daughter but the entire shooting, as a way to justify a fight for tighter gun laws. 

‘Don’t ever think this couldn’t be staged,’ Jones warned his viewers days after the slaughter. ‘I told you they are going to come for our guns, look for mass shootings and then magically it happens. They are coming. They are coming. They are coming!’

His followers wasted no time in picking up the gauntlet.

Some posts – like the Facebook friend request sent from a fake profile of the shooter, Adam Lanza, complete with his picture and demographics – were just ‘cruel and malicious,’ says Parker.

Others were much more sinister and offensive.

‘F***ing liar, your daughter ain’t dead!’ read one comment on a memorial page on Facebook started by friends of the family.

‘Viva 2nd Amendment! Try and take my guns, but watch your back, because we are coming for you!’ said another, this time linking back to an Infowars article and video about the shooting.

Parker and his wife, Alissa, suffocating in their grief, tried to ignore the messages, but it became almost impossible.

‘Alissa and I read an actual letter where one man articulated his fantasy about what my head would feel like after blows from his baseball bat,’ he writes.

‘The conspiracy messages had graduated past online anonymous posts to sending physical letters to my home. And not just our home: a majority of Sandy Hook families received threatening material in some form or another.’

One couple were told: ‘Death is coming to you real soon. LOOK BEHIND YOU; IT IS DEATH!’

He adds: ‘Mark Barden, whose son Daniel was killed, talked about how someone mailed a letter to let him and his wife Jackie know they had gone and urinated on Daniel’s grave and headstone.’

By the end of January 2013, they were forced to shut down Emilie’s memorial page, it had become ‘so inundated with vile filth and lies.’

‘How is Emilie tonight? We know the b*tch is alive or never existed.’

‘You dirty no good son of a bitch we know Emilie never existed and you just collect money.’

‘You will have to answer to God for your bullshit! Your kids are ugly! You punk bitch!’

But Parker’s terror became very real and palpable when he was confronted in the street while visiting Seattle in 2015.

‘A man on the sidewalk made eye contact with me – and wouldn’t look away,’ he recalls.

‘He was easily over six feet tall, with dark hair and dressed like any other Seattle professional walking downtown after work.’

‘Hey,’ they man said, his eyes inquisitive, ‘didn’t you have a child that was killed?’

It had been a while since Parker had been recognized so he was caught off guard but said, yes, his daughter had been killed at Sandy Hook, and reached out instinctively to shake the hand of a well-wisher.

‘He looked at my hand, then stared at me for a few seconds. Suddenly I watched his face contort while his eyes darkened. He pursed his lips tight before spitting, “How the f*** do you sleep at night, you f***ing son of a b*tch?”

‘His words were pure hatred and I stood still, shocked, as if I had just been bitten by a snake. He stepped directly in front of me and continued, “How much money did they give you? Huh? How much f***ing money did they give you, you lying sack of sh*t?”

‘I froze and felt my blood boil while my hands and jaw clenched tight. Behind him, just across the street was the hotel where my wife and daughters waited for me… I needed to keep this man away from them – at all costs.

‘Without saying a word, I turned around and started walking up the street away from the hotel.’

The man kept pace with Parker, walking along by his side, spitting venom in his ear then gradually raising his voice until he was yelling obscenities.

‘I grew hot, my entire face flushed as I became overcome with emotion in a way I had never experienced before,’ he writes.

‘Everyone else on the crowded street seemed to disappear and the ancillary noise of the city faded away. I had never directly experienced so much vile hatred before in person. I felt myself start to panic.

‘I picked up my pace and so did he. “Huh, motherf***er? We all know no one was killed at Sandy Hook. The FBI f***ed up and reported no one died. Emilie isn’t real.”’

Parker eventually shook off his attacker and, overcome with rage, had to walk around the block two more times to calm down – and ensure his tormenter had gone.

‘I could feel my heartbeat pounding in my ears. For the first time ever, I’d engaged with a conspiracist and felt the disgust emanating off of him, for who he thought I was.’

For a long time, he says he blamed himself for the abuse.

‘It was my idea to hold a press conference that would become the fodder Alex Jones used to spew the lies which fueled hatred and slander toward all the Sandy Hook families,’ he writes. ‘I bore the blame as a form of penance for the ruthless assault we suffered due to my carelessness.’

But Alex Jones has since admitted that the Connecticut shooting did happen after all.

And, in 2022, the families won a $1.4 billion defamation lawsuit against him. He was forced to declare bankruptcy, and sell Infowars to pay the damages.

It was bought at auction last month by satirical news site The Onion, but this week a federal judge rejected the sale, criticizing the bidding process as flawed and saying the largest bidder was not selected.

The decision means Jones can stay at Infowars.

‘We can celebrate the judge doing the right thing with the most ridiculous, fraudulent auction known in human history,’ he said.

Christopher Mattei, a lawyer for the Sandy Hook families who sued Jones in Connecticut, said they were disappointed the bid had been rejected after it was recommended by the trustee as being in the best interest of Jones’ creditors.

‘These families, who have already persevered through countless delays and roadblocks, remain resilient and determined as ever to hold Alex Jones and his corrupt businesses accountable for the harm he has caused,’ Mattei said.

‘This decision doesn´t change the fact that, soon, Alex Jones will begin to pay his debt to these families and he will continue doing so for as long as it takes.’

A Father’s Fight: Taking on Alex Jones and Reclaiming the Truth About Sandy Hook by Robbie Parker is published by Diversion Books