The St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office made an arrest last week in connection with a homicide that shook the Lacombe community, a statement on the tragic incident reveals a youth on the cusp of manhood embroiled in a grievous act that has garnered both law enforcement attention and public dismay. Caleb Gasery, 17, was taken into custody by deputies on Tuesday, October 15, for the alleged murder of Jason Sumner, WDSU reports.
On the fateful evening of October 9, in the 26000 block of East Jackson Street in Lacombe, deputies arrived to a grim tableau where they discovered Sumner outside of a residence, mortally wounded by gunshots. Despite their efforts which were immediate and desperate they could not preserve his life; he was pronounced dead at the scene, as WWLTV details. Gasery, whose 18th birthday looms on the horizon October 27, now faces a charge of second-degree murder. Subsequent to his apprehension, he was booked into the St. Tammany Parish Correctional Center.
St. Tammany Sheriff Randy Smith, in a published comment, expressed gratitude for the diligence of the investigative team "who have worked around the clock to identify and arrest the individual responsible for this crime," highlighting the impact of the arrest in providing some semblance, however fractured, of closure to those left adrift in the wake of tragedy this arrest helps to bring some closure to the Sumner family and the Lacombe community, he told WWLTV. As it is ongoing, the investigation keeps a veil over certain details, leaving a community to grapple with the complex fabric of an all-too-common American narrative of gun violence and its youngest protagonists, as WGNO reports.
