Family recalls woman killed by neighbor amid target practice

GAFFNEY, S.C. — 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…