A family dispute following a funeral in Riviera Beach, Florida on Saturday left two dead and two others injured, Breitbart reported.
“To have to bury a loved one today, and then two more people lose their life is just real hard,” said Tywuante Lupoe, pastor of Victory City Church, located across the street from where the shooting incident took place.
Shots fired following funeral
According to an official statement from Rivera Beach police, around 2:30 p.m., officers were called to the scene of a shooting near Victory City Church.
They arrived to find three victims, a 47-year-old man named Royce Freeman, a 15-year-old boy, and one unidentified female. The two males were pronounced dead at the scene, while the female was transported to a hospital to be treated for what were thought to be non-life-threatening injuries.
The deceased teenager was later identified as Terrance Jackson, a football player at Deerfield Beach High School. Jackson reportedly made the decision to attend his grandfather’s funeral rather than take a trip with his football team to visit colleges.
Additional insight into what likely happened has been provided by Lupoe, the pastor who officiated at the funeral. According to his account, after the service was over, a fight between family members took place just across the street from the church, and it escalated into multiple gunshots being fired.
“Family fued” likely to blame
The pastor described why he believed this tragedy occurred, and indicated that the tragic turn of events did not exactly come as a surprise to him.
In fact, because he was already aware of an ongoing family feud among relatives of the deceased and that fact that it might ultimately lead to violence at the funeral, Pastor Lupoe had put precautions in place in the form of armed security, which included one Riviera Beach police officer. Those measures were effective in terms of keeping funeral-goers safe during the service itself.
But, after most of the attendees departed, so too did the armed security, and it is then that things got out of hand.
In explaning exactly what occurred, Lupoe said, “It was a family feud that really went bad, and a young man tried to defuse it, but his way of defusing it was not a very, very smart way.”
Investigation continues
The Riviera Beach Police are continuing their investigation into the incident. According to ABC News, a police spokesman assured the community that, “the shooting was not a random act of violence,” and thus there is no need for further concern among the public at large.
Thus far, law enforcement officials have not made any arrests, and no formal statement as to motive has been released.
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