The 12-year-old boy killed in a murder-suicide Wednesday night was the younger brother of a woman embroiled in a contentious divorce whose estranged husband broke into his in-law’s house and fired on the child a day after appearing in court to fight a restraining order against him, according to authorities and court records.
Rickoshay Kerr smashed his car into the garage of the Damascus home, where his wife had been living, entered the house and shot the boy before turning the gun on himself, Clackamas County sheriff’s officials said.
The boy’s parents, Amber and Patrick Landers, said in Facebook posts that their seventh-grade son, Patrick Landers Jr., had died.
“I am so sad to say that last night my strong, smart, handsome and kind baby boy was taken too soon,” the boy’s mother wrote in a Facebook post Thursday. “He will forever be held in my heart. I love you Patrick Landers Jr.”
Amber Landers wrote in another post that Kerr had said in court Tuesday that “he was going to kill himself” and told multiple people the next day he “planned to do this.”
“My daughter called 911 multiple times and was hung up on,” she wrote. “And by the time they arrived my baby was already dead.”
The Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office declined Friday to answer questions about the shooting, citing the open investigation.
Sheriff’s deputies had responded to the Southeast Delia Street home about 5:55 p.m. Wednesday after multiple neighbors reported seeing a man in the area with a gun. Sheriff’s officials said in a statement that they believed a man had broken into the home in violation of a restraining order. It is believed the 12-year-old was home alone at the time.
One 911 caller told dispatchers Kerr was “suicidal” and “was going to do something stupid,” according to a Clackamas County law enforcement radio broadcast.
Deputies near the scene reported firing at a car speeding past them toward the house and shooting out two of its tires. Sheriff’s officials identified the driver as a “concerned family member” and said no one was hurt. Amber Landers said in a Facebook post that her husband “raced through in his truck trying to get anybody to help PJ (and) they shot at him.”
One 911 caller told police they had received a FaceTime call from the 12-year-old boy’s phone, along with a video from “Rick” of the boy on the ground with blood on him, according to the broadcast.
Officials heard gunfire shortly after 6 p.m. and entered the house, where they found one injured person with a gun and another person with a gunshot wound to the head. Deputies called for LifeFlight and began chest compressions on the 12-year-old, who died at the scene, according to sheriff’s officials and the dispatch broadcast.
The murder-suicide was a violent end to an acrimonious breakup between Lacie Kerr and Rickoshay Kerr. Lacie Kerr requested temporary sole custody of the couple’s young son during a court hearing Tuesday, according to a memorandum filed that day in Washington County Circuit Court.
The two met when she was 21 and he was 30 and got married in August 2019, court records indicate. The two lived together in a rental home in Hillsboro, where he worked as a technician for an HVAC company.
Lacie Kerr said in court documents that her husband was abusive toward her before and during their marriage, including sexually assaulting her, throwing her against a dresser and shaking her. She said she did not report the abuse to police because her husband had promised to get counseling.
Lacie Kerr in April moved with the couple’s 2-year-old son into her parents’ home after another alleged incident of domestic violence and filed for divorce later that month, court records show.
A Washington County judge in May granted a restraining order filed by Lacie Kerr, forbidding Rickoshay Kerr from going near his estranged wife or her workplace and ordering him to immediately turn over any guns and ammunition in his possession and forbidding him to acquire any. He signed paperwork that month indicating he did not have any guns, court records show.
Rickoshay Kerr’s attorney, Jessica Braverman, disputed Lacie Kerr’s allegations in a response to the restraining order petition, adding that her client was a “reliable and fit parent.”
Lacie Kerr said her husband had begun “to act erratically” and stalk her, including by calling and texting her repeatedly in the middle of the night, contacting her family in violation of the restraining order and going to their child’s daycare while she was picking him up.
She also suspected her husband had physically abused their child, according to the court filings.
After one of two supervised visits with the 2-year-old, the boy returned to Lacie Kerr with a bruise on his head and bloodshot eyes and was “almost unresponsive,” she said in court records. She then got a call from the child’s pediatrician telling her that Rickoshay Kerr had reported to the doctor’s office that the boy had a seizure in his care and needed medical attention.
She rushed the boy to an emergency room, where a doctor said he suspected child abuse and filed a report with state Child Protective Services. A case worker advised Lacie Kerr not to allow any unsupervised contact between the toddler and his father until the end of their investigation, according to court records.
Lacie Kerr said she moved into her parents’ home because its locked gate and security cameras made her feel safe.
But, according to the memo from Tuesday’s restraining order hearing, she was still “terrified (Kerr) will retaliate in anger.”
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