‘Devil’s works,’ angel’s words

Beverly Shephard stretched one hand over the flower-decked, white coffin bearing the remains of her 14-year-old grandson and made a quiet but firm pronouncement.

“This is the work of the devil,” she said, referring to the conspiracy of tragedies that resulted in Cameron Tillman, an Ellender High honor student, being shot to death by a Terrebonne Parish deputy at the doorstep of an abandoned Village East home known as a teen hangout.

Louisiana State Police are investigating the shooting, which local law enforcement officials maintain will be seen as justified, however tragically so.

SOURCES CONFIRM IDENTITY

Sheriff Jerry Larpenter has not identified the officer involved in the shooting, but multiple law enforcement sources confirm his identity as Preston Norman, a 7-year veteran with a clean record.

The incident was not cross-racial. Norman is black, as was Cameron. Rumors to the contrary remain in circulation.

Larpenter has stated that Cameron had a realistic pellet gun in his hand when he came to the door of the abandoned house following a deputy’s knock, likely thinking that a friend rather than law enforcement was on the other side.

Norman, Larpenter said, was in fear for his life and fired. Law enforcement sources say there were four shots, three of which struck Cameron in the chest. Another shot went through the teen’s shoulder, according to sources with direct knowledge of the case, and went through the open door behind him.

A telephone report had been received of a group of young men with guns entering an abandoned house on Kirkglen Loop in East Houma.

“Look ma’am they got about six or seven young boys walking up and down the street with guns,” the female caller stated.

Family members and some of their neighbors in the Village East subdivision discount the police claims, and say that while the replica may have been in the house at 51 Kirkglen Loop, Cameron came to the door empty-handed.

Shock at the death overall and disbelief that the guileless student would for any reason be the target of an officer’s gun, married with suspicion fueled by recent national events and street rumors, sent shock-waves through the neighborhood.

If the devil played a role, as Beverly Shephard claims, there is also evidence of quiet work by angels behind the scenes, who helped channel anger and frustration into a series of peaceful and orderly protest marches.

NO FERGUSON

From the night of the shooting, street gossip branded the incident with racial overtones, which were quickly addressed by community leaders.

“We have been asking the people in the district to let the investigation take its course, and just remain calm until we get all the facts,” said Terrebonne Parish Councilman John Navy, who communicated with local pastors, asking for their help in quelling rumors and unverified statements.

Terrebonne Parish NAACP President Jerome Boykin and former council member Alvin Tillman, Cameron’s uncle, were also communicating messages of calm last week.

Boykin initially contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigations, whose agents are monitoring the case. Although satisfied by a preliminary official explanation offered by Sheriff Jerry Larpenter, Boykin is awaiting the official report from Louisiana State Police, as well as whatever findings the FBI may later determine, before making a final judgment. He, Navy and other leaders praised Larpenter’s handling of the protests, which drew a nearly invisible police presence. Larpenter and other officials acknowledged that the approach was a tactical one.

Some community leaders noted the heavy-handed police approach used in Ferguson, Missouri, in response to protests over the shooting of teenager Michael Brown escalated problems in that community.

“I believe Sheriff Larpenter’s officers respect his leadership, that they let the people be able to be together and express themselves in a respectful manner,” Navy said. “I agree with that 100 percent. We both agree we want to keep the people safe, we don’t need incidents, we don’t need to be another Ferguson.”

TRESPASS DISPUTED

According to Larpenter and other law enforcement officials, deputies responded to a call placed at approximately 5:16 p.m. by a complainant who did not identify herself, but was later identified as a local black woman.

The house at 51 Kirkglen Loop had belonged to Roosevelt Lagarde, who died in 2010. A companion lived there for two more years after, said one of Lagarde’s nieces, Ann Williams.

“He always let those young boys from the neighborhood come to the house,” she said. “Sometimes when he was cooking he would feed them.”

Williams said the house became too much for her family to care for after her father’s death, and she knew young people used the house as a “hangout” to the current day.

The young men who were in the house on the day Cameron was killed were not trespassing, she said, but were expected to be there. Other relatives, she said, also have been aware of the use of the brick home as a “clubhouse.”

Williams also expressed surprise that someone would call the sheriff’s office.

“This was not the first time for them going in the house, I don’t know what was special about that day that someone called to say there was a problem with them being in the house,” said Williams, who held her uncle’s power of attorney when he died. The finance company has sent many bills for mortgage payments, but no foreclosure has occurred, she said.

The house is still listed in Terrebonne Parish records as belonging to Lagarde; homestead-exempted, it has no taxes owed.

“If my uncle could speak from the grave, he would say leave those kids alone,they weren’t doing anything,” Williams said. A neighbor, Alcide Boudwin, said he has cut the lawn in front of the house because of problems with vermin in the area due to tall growth.

CHILLING

On Sept. 23 Cameron went to the house with his brother, 18-year-old Andre Tillman, and other friends. He had missed school that day, due to over-sleeping, said his mother, Wyteika Tillman.

“We were chilling, hanging out,” said Andre, who was there with Cameron and three other teens. The house, he said, was a place where girls were sometimes brought, and generally a place to play.

There were two pellet guns, he said, and sometimes they would play with them, games similar to cops and robbers. But they were not engaged in such play that afternoon.

Andre said there was a knock on the door, four or five sharp raps.

“My brother was clowning,” he said, suggesting the 14-year-old might have thought other friends were afoot.

Cameron, he said, answered the door.

It is a side door that opens into a garage area with no door, on the right side of the house. It was closed shut, Andre said.

“He was kind of peeking around,” Andre said of the manner in which Cameron opened the door. “My brother had nothing in his hand. Cam had nothing in his hand. He left his phone and everything else on the table. I was sitting in the chair, I seen the deputy from there.”

TEEN’S LAST WORDS

Another deputy had also arrived and stood outside, at the garage entrance, unseen by Andre.

“When he knocked there was no, ‘This is the police.’ He didn’t say none of that,” the teen said.

“The man started firing, four times,” said Andre, whose nickname is “Snip.”

“I saw the smoke from the man’s gun and Cam said, ‘Snip, they shot me,’” Andre recalled. “He stumbled forward and then back, and I tried to catch him. He was back inside and I was on top of him. He said, ‘I’m shot, I’m shot.’ The man put a gun to my head and told me to get off him, and then he told me and the other people to lay down.”

Andre said he and the teens were ordered to remain on the floor, on their bellies. By that time the second deputy came in, the one who allegedly shot Cameron – Preston Norman – had gone to his car and returned with a black bag.

RUMORS CONTINUE

Officers who know Norman said they are certain it was a trauma bag, because of his medical background working offshore.

If, as other officers presume, Norman was attempting to aid Cameron, Andre was not aware. He and the two other teens had been moved to the garage area, where they lay face down until being taken into patrol cars.

A fourth teen, who has not yet been found as of press time, ran out an open back door into the house’s rear yard.

On the police radio, according to officers in other areas who were monitoring, there was a cacophony of calls for assistance and descriptions of the missing youth.

A claim by family members that Cameron was left unaided for 45 minutes while still alive is absolutely denied by authorities, although a statement by Andre may relate to its source. According to officers, a crew from Acadian Ambulance was on the scene swiftly. A record from Acadian was not available at press time.

Nearly an hour after the incident, while Andre was in custody, “downtown,” the brother said, he asked an officer how his brother was.

“He told me he’s still breathing,” Andre said. He communicated that conversation to family members, likely resulting in the misunderstanding. There is nothing in the record available to authorities to explain why such a statement would have been made, unless it was an attempt to mollify the distressed 18-year-old.

Andre and the others were released from custody, although authorities said it is possible that trespassing or related charges could still be pending.

It is not known whether investigators are aware of the Williams claim that the youngsters were allowed to be in the house.

GUN LOOKS REAL

The gun recovered by investigators, alleged to be the one Cameron held in his hand resulting in the shooting, is a realistic SigSauer .45-caliber replica, which shoots metal pellets.

Such BB guns, experts in federal law said, are not required to have orange tips.

State Police Troop C spokesman Evan Harrell said a crime lab from his agency came to the house to gather evidence. Trajectory tests were done with string and lasers. Photographs were taken.

After that the house was left as it was, Cameron’s dried blood still on the kitchen floor, a visible bullet hole believed to have been made when a projectile passed through the teen’s shoulder in the door.

Two candles were lit on the floor, like the ones outside at the makeshift memorial of balloons and flowers.

“Once they handle the evidence and have the photographs and measurements it goes back to what it had been, it is returned to what it was prior,” Harrell said.

SAVER NOT A TAKER

The State Police role, Harrell said, is to determine whether the officer “felt his life or someone else’s life was in immediate danger and also if there was a crime committed on the part of the officer.”

It is likely that Norman will officially be publicly identified once that report is complete. Meanwhile, officers who worked with Norman, who was reported to have been traumatized by the shooting and was placed on administrative leave with pay, said that if he chose to fire they trust his judgment.

“He got in the job for all the right reasons,” one officer said. “This kid is a life saver, not a life-taker.”

It may be weeks before the report is completed, Harrell said, explaining that “the officer involved and the family deserve thorough and proper investigation.”

SATAN’S SYSTEM

Beverly Shephard, meanwhile, tries living up to her matriarchal role, hosting family and well-wishers at her home not far from where the shooting occurred, in Friendswood.

Asked to explain her comment at Cameron’s funeral, about the devil’s work, she said the evil is apparent.

“Satan is a god of the world, not of heaven, who does not promote peace, does not promote kindness, he is merciless,” Shephard said. “Cam is the victim of that work, and Satan targets innocent people and Cam was a part of that. Those who are part of that system of Satan’s, they may not realize it. But Satan has a system set up, and that system is what caused my grandson to lose his life.”

Wyteika Tillman, center, says a final good-bye over the casket of her son, Cameron Tillman, during burial services at Southdown Cemetery in Houma Saturday. Assisting her are (from left) her uncles, Warren Shephard and Clarence Tillman, and on the right her cousin Samantha T. Robinson

 

JOHN DeSANTIS | THE TIMES