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| Photo Credit: AP. |
GAFFNEY, S.C. (AP) — Nicholas Skylar Lucas’ gunfire typically hit the bullet-riddled rusty trash can or fallen satellite dish in his backyard, much to some residents’ discontent.
But on
Saturday, Aug. 27, bullets from the intoxicated 30-year-old man’s .45-caliber
handgun fatally struck Kesha Luwan Lucille Tate, his 42-year-old neighbor and
parent to nine children, according to local authorities.
Lucas now
faces a murder charge after crime scene technicians said they disproved his
initial claim that the shots ricocheted off the dish. The “pristine” bullet
could not have deflected off the target before reaching Tate’s chest, officials
determined. The only way she could have been struck, according to the local
sheriff’s office, is if the shooter turned in her direction and intentionally
fired.
Over the
past two weeks, Tate’s family has navigated the sudden reality of life without
the mother, niece and sister they say held them together. They are seeking
legal changes without the woman they described as their strongest fighter. And
they don’t want to see Tate join the long list of forgotten gun violence
victims.
Songbird
Lane lies nearly 6 miles (9.6 kilometers) north of downtown Gaffney, a
12,700-person upstate city whose status as South Carolina’s “peach capital” is
marked by a 135-foot (41 meter) water tower resembling the pitted fruit. Farm
fields line parts of the drive into town. Most trailers sit on property whose
boundaries lack fencing. By neighbors’ accounts, Songbird Lane was a quiet country
street where the mobile homes’ residents mostly kept to themselves.
At the bond
hearing, Lucas said the shooting was a “complete accident.” He denied
intentionally killing Tate.
“I’m really
confused about this whole situation,” Lucas said. “I’ve done all kinds of yard
work for this lady and everything.”
Tate’s own
children described a grislier scene inside the trailer.
Their mother
had been cooking dinner that summer evening while Lucas and his friends were
shooting at targets in his backyard, according to family members who heard her
children’s account. Standing at her backdoor, less than 50 feet (15 meters)
from the fallen satellite dish, Tate asked her neighbor to stop firing his gun.
Tate pulled
back the curtain a few minutes later when Lucas began shooting again.
“When she
looked out the window she yelled,” said Terry Manning, her brother-in-law, who
relayed the children’s account to The Associated Press. She’d been shot.
One week
later, children’s bicycles remained in the front yard. Window panes on the back
door were shattered. Manning and Denise Tate, Kesha’s sister, cleaned stains
off the wall but said they could not rid the carpet of blood.
“If that man
got to know my sister he would’ve never killed her,” Denise said. “She would’ve
gave him a place to stay, foot to eat, clothes, all of that. Anything he
needed, even for his family, she would’ve helped.”
Beyond
seeking a guilty charge, the family said gun laws need to change. South
Carolina had the country’s ninth highest firearm mortality rate in 2020,
according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They are
pushing for a “Kesha Tate Target Law” that would make it illegal to shoot a
firearm in a residential neighborhood.
Cherokee
County Sheriff Steve Mueller said his office received no reports of Lucas
firing his weapon at that property over the past year. Even if neighbors had
complained about the regular gun shots, Mueller said no ordinance exists
outlining Lucas’ behavior as illegal. The local sheriff’s office has been
collecting court records from other jurisdictions to determine whether he could
legally own a firearm.
Court
records show Lucas had previously been convicted in North Carolina of assault
and theft. South Carolina state law bars handgun ownership for anyone convicted
in any state of burglary, robbery or “assault with intent to commit any offense
punishable by imprisonment for more than one year,” among other such “crimes of
violence.”
The family
is also seeking therapy for themselves and the children, who are taking a break
from school. Kesha’s 4-year-old daughter can’t comprehend the tragedy, but
Denise said she knows she hasn’t seen her mother lately.
Interviews
with family, friends and acquaintances revealed a woman committed to her
community. She would “give you the shirt off her back,” said neighbor Latosha
McFadden. She was a “social butterfly” who would “make sure you have a good
time,” said Manning. She “could make anyone laugh,” said Beverly Wray.
Wray —
Kesha’s aunt who was known as her mother — recalled her own most recent
birthday in February. Kesha bought her a dress, told her to put on her heels
and took her out to eat, where she’d planned a surprise party. “That’s how she
is,” Wray said.
For Denise,
she was the family’s concrete.
Denise
recalled trips as a pre-teen with her sister to Brannon’s Seafood, which “had
the best peach cobbler in the world.” After school, Kesha would buy each of them
a slice.
“She always
made sure I was taken care of. Even as an adult she was always there. She was
my backbone,” Denise said. “So I gotta keep it together and stay strong for
these kids and her grandson.”
The family
all echoed that sentiment: Kesha’s commitment to them must be passed forward in
caring for her nine surviving children, several of whom have lost their
fathers.
Family
members emphasized that they want to raise the children between themselves.
They don’t want them separated in the foster care system. Traleekia Tate,
Kesha’s oldest daughter, organized a GoFundMe that has raised more than
$11,000. Growing up, she said her mother instilled in her that the family would
always take care of each other.
“I miss
her,” she said. “I just feel like she built me for this.”
James
Pollard is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America
Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service
program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered
issues.