Louisiana – Kenner Police Department disclosed that the killing of a 66-year-old handyman had a racial motive.
Last month, Lawrence Herr was killed while repairing a mailbox, and Tahj Matthews (23) and Maurice Holmes (25), both black male suspects, have admitted their involvement in the crime.
According to the police, one of the suspects confessed that he “just wanted to kill a white guy.”
Matthews and Holmes were both charged with first-degree murder in connection with the fatal drive-by shooting on April 10.
Reports state that the suspects shot Lawrence Herr while he was fixing a mailbox on Georgetown Place in Kenner.
FOX 8 WVUE reports that both suspects are currently being held in the Jefferson Parish Correction Center.
The police are considering the possibility of pressing hate crime charges.
As reported by FOX 8 WVUE:
Police said one of the two suspects has admitted to his role in the crime, explaining they just wanted to go out and “kill a white guy.”
Tahj Matthews, 23, and Maurice Holmes, 25, have been booked with first-degree murder in connection with the slaying of Herr. The 66-year-old handyman also known as “Peanut” was gunned down April 10, seemingly without warning, while repairing a mailbox on Kenner’s Georgetown Place.
“We have not found any relation between the victim and the suspects,” Kenner Police Chief Keith Conley said Tuesday (May 9). “In fact, the victim’s back was to the suspects when the shots were fired.”
At a preliminary hearing Tuesday in Jefferson Parish’s magistrate court, Kenner Police detective Nicolas Engler testified that Matthews and Holmes were captured on surveillance video taken at a Clemson Drive apartment complex just two hours before the killing.
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