Baton Rouge Black Men Killings: Suspect Didn't Express Racist Views, Aunt Says

BATON ROUGE, LA — A maternal aunt of Kenneth Gleason — the white man accused of murdering two black men in Baton Rouge and shooting up a black family's home last week — said her nephew, an eagle scout who graduated with honors from an elite high school, didn't express any outwardly racist views.

The 23-year-old man was jailed and police have said the slew of attacks might've been racially motivated. But if Gleason was a racist, he didn't pick up those views from his family, his aunt Kerrie Highley said. Gleason's arrest shocked and baffled relatives.

"His family didn't teach him that," Highley said Wednesday. "None of us feel that way." (For more information on Gleason's case and other Baton Rouge stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

Gleason wore a T-shirt bearing the name of a Boys Scouts ranch in New Mexico when police officers led him in handcuffs past a bank of reporters Tuesday outside Louisiana State Police headquarters.

"We were shocked to learn about the allegations against this individual. This behavior runs counter to everything for which the BSA (Boy Scouts of America) stands," said Gary Mertz, a local Scout official.

He could face a possible death sentence if he's convicted in the killings of a homeless man and a dishwasher walking to work. In each case, the gunman opened fire from his car, then walked up to the victim as he lay on the ground and fired again repeatedly, police said.

He also is charged with firing gunshots into the home of a black family that lives three houses down from him and his parents.

Investigators said surveillance footage and DNA on a shell casing linked him to the crimes. Authorities found a handwritten copy of an Adolf Hitler speech at Gleason's home, a law-enforcement official said.

Highley said she hasn't seen Gleason since a family trip to Thailand nearly two years ago. She described him as a quiet, polite person who "didn't fit anything violent."

"None of this makes sense to me at all," she said.

Gleason graduated cum laude from Baton Rouge Magnet High School in 2012 and became an Eagle Scout later that same year, a distinction he earned after building choir risers for a local church, according to The Advocate newspaper's report at the time.

Gleason attended LSU from the fall of 2012 to fall of 2013. He had transferred to LSU from Baton Rouge Community College.

Gleason faces first-degree murder charges in the shooting deaths of 59-year-old Bruce Cofield and 49-year-old Donald Smart. Cofield, who was homeless, was gunned down on a street corner on Sept. 12. Smart was shot Sept. 14 on his way to his job at a cafe popular with LSU students.

"I feel confident that this killer would have killed again," interim Police Chief Jonny Dunnam said.

Gleason's attorney, J. Christopher Alexander, said his client "vehemently denies guilt, and we look forward to complete vindication."

Neighbors said they occasionally saw Gleason sleeping in a car parked outside his parents' Baton Rouge home, where he was living after a trip to Arizona late last year. It's not clear why he went to Arizona, but while he was in Phoenix last December, Gleason was arrested on charges of shoplifting wine and razors. Police said he was homeless at the time. The case was dismissed after he completed a diversion program.

Tonya Stephens, a black woman who lives three houses down from Gleason's parents, said she never interacted with him before the shooting at her home. Stephens said her two adult sons were home — and she was away at her nurse's job — when three bullets pierced the front door and struck furniture. Nobody was hurt.

"I never paid him any mind," Stephens said.

Authorities said ballistics tests determined the same gun was used in all three shootings. Also, they said DNA found on one of the shell casings matched genetic material on a swab they took from Gleason.

Investigators have not found the 9 mm gun but said Gleason bought such a weapon last November.

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN and RUSS BYNUM, Associated Press

Photo credit: Gerald Herbert/Associated Press