An Iowa man confessed to killing a father-of-17 at his 8-year-old son’s funeral on Saturday.
Neumonie Tre Vonne Laster, 24, admitted shooting Jeramie Shorter, 26, while attending the funeral of his son Jermier Leon Shorter, who died after a long battle with cancer.
The murder happened outside a Davenport funeral home at 11:30 a.m. Davenport police say Laster knew visitation was set for 9 a.m. at the funeral home. He lay in wait for Shorter in the parking lot of the funeral home at 3625 Jersey Ridge Road.
Authorities say Laster “willfully, deliberately and with premeditation” shot Shorter in a parking lot/garage area.
Laster fled in a 2004 Infiniti G35 without license plates. Police spotted him in the 800 block of West 15th Street after Laster ran through a red light.
A foot chase ensued and police tackled Laster and arrested him in the 800 block of West 16th Street. Police observed Laster toss a bag over a fence. The murder weapon was recovered from the bag, according to KWQC.
Laster was charged with murder in the first degree, police said.
Family members who buried little Jermier on Saturday came together to attend a vigil for his father at Centennial Park on Sunday.
“Why would you want to bring a gun to a kids wake? To a baby’s wake? No matter what’s going on. Where was your mind thinking?” said Jamie Delaney Shorter, Jeramie Shorter’s father.
“Him losing his son. I’m losing my grandson to cancer that he fought for many years. We went through that two weeks ago, then to go through this? Now I don’t have him. It’s hard,” Jamie said.
“The way that he lost his life wasn’t right. Not in front of his kids,” said Shavonta Randle, the mother of one of Jeramie’s 17 children.
“A lot of them don’t understand what’s going on just yet. So just being around everybody and everybody out hanging out loving on each other is what they’re going to need,” she said.
“He loved his kids. That’s all that mattered… He loved them all unconditionally and they all love they dad,” Randle said, “Everybody always used to say about how many kids he had but now that he’s gone that’s all we have to hold on to.”
“Their grandpa is gonna be there for them,” Shorter said, “They all they got. Each other. I’m going to try to teach them that. I want to teach my grandkids all to pray and ask God to help us all cause we’re going to need help. They’re going to need help.”
