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Family of victims asking 'Why?' after shooting spree kills 5

5 years 2 months 7 hours ago Sunday, January 27 2019 Jan 27, 2019 January 27, 2019 5:12 PM January 27, 2019 in News
Source: WBRZ

DENHAM SPRINGS- 16-year-old Hunter Ernest describes the morning he found out that his brother Tanner, sister Summer and father Billy had been murdered as heartbreaking.

"Before that we were happy, and then the police told my mom to sit down, and they told her what happened, and she was broken. We were broken," Hunter said.

Hunter said the moment he heard about the incident he immediately knew who did it.

"He was the first thing that popped in my head. It was just gut instinct," said Hunter.

According to police, 'he' is 21-year-old Dakota Theriot. He was friends with and possibly dating Summer Ernest. The family met Dakota a week before the incident happened.

"I said this boys trouble," said Tanner's grandmother Evelyn Sing, after she met Theriot. She said God gave her gut feeling about Theriot and it wasn't a good one.

"A lot of people don't realize this, but if you have the spirit of God in you, you know. I have the spirit of God in me, and I knew my baby was going down the wrong road with the wrong type of person," said Sing.

Never in a million years, though did she think it would end like this.

"It's hard enough to lose a child, but when you lose your grandchildren too, you have to bury three at one time," said Sing.

Rhonda Champagne is Hunter, Summer, and Tanner's mother, and she is still trying to understand Dakota reasoning for killing her loved ones.

"Why? It's senseless, my babies died for nothing. Their daddy died for nothing. What was so important that you had to have, that you took them?" said Champagne.

Now all they can do is wait for justice and judgment.

"He doesn't deserve any remorse from anybody," said Tanner and Hunter's friend Ethan Swilley. "There's a special place in that prison for him."

You can donate to the family's funeral expenses here.

Dakota Theriot was arrested by Richmond County Sheriff’s deputies more than a thousand miles and 15 hours away from the two shooting scenes. Theriot was caught in the Northern Neck area of the region where he has family.

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