I suspect the picture to have been fabricated for the blog the post is from. I have been unable to track it back to the original story, where the young man is described as “shy”.
If any can show the origin of the image, it would be nice if it were actually the young man in the story.
Unfortunately, I believe it is simply a posed photo of another young man.
I suspect you’re right. Mom said he wants to avoid publicity, said she didn’t teach him handgun fundamentals. Wonder about that, but maybe a smart thing to tell the press. But those would argue against making him available for a photo op.