Family Mourns Murder Victim; Seeks Help With Funeral Expenses

September 26, 2009

porter11.jpgThe Thursday night shooting death of Kenny Porter has left friends and family members in state of shock, and they are also wondering how they are going to pay for the 32-year old’s funeral.

Porter’s wife Liz Porter is pregnant his first child, which is due any day. The baby girl will be named Kennedy in honor of her now-deceased father. She says she does not know how she is going to support  the baby or her other three children.

Janice Rolin said the entire incident started with an argument over a ladder between her mother, Lorraine Gray, Clarence Luker and Kenny Porter, who was her brother-in-law.

nokomis-murder-29.jpg“Then the next thing I knew, Clarence had a gun when he got out of the van and he was shooting and Kenny with all these kids out here,” Rolin said. “He just jumped out of the van  and pointed the gun right at Kenny. Then he went to shooting. I was scared for the kids.” She tried her best to get the children away from scene as fast as possible as Porter collapsed on the porch of a mobile home, she said.

Porter was transported to Atmore Community Hospital by ambulance and then transferred by helicopter to the USA Medical Center in Mobile. That’s where he was pronounced dead.

After Luker was captured, he admitted to Escambia County (Ala.) deputies that he was the shooter. But in a bizarre twist to the story, Gray told deputies that she was the one that shot Porter, and that the argument involved a rake.

“I shot him,” Gray told Escambia County (Ala.) Sheriff Grover Smith at the scene Thursday night. “I’m the one that did it….I took the gun and I shot him.”

nokomis-murder-mug1.jpgBoth Gray and Luker (pictured left) are in the Escambia County (Ala.) Jail charged with open counts of murder.

And now family members say they need help from the community to pay for Porter’s funeral. Visitation is scheduled for 6 to 9 Monday night at Petty Eastside Chapel in Atmore. Funeral services will follow at 2 p.m. Tuesday at Fretwell Tabernacle Holiness Church. Burial will be in the Bankster Cemetery in Spanish Fort, Ala.

Person interesting in helping the family with funeral expenses can make their donations at Petty Eastside Chapel, 9260 Hwy 31, Atmore, AL 36502; or call the funeral home at (251) 368-4540.

For the Friday morning story about the shooting from NorthEscambia.com, click here.

Click here for an exclusive NorthEsambia.com photo gallery from the arrest of Luker and Gray.

Click here for the full obituary for Kenny Porter.

NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.

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