HUMBLE, Texas (KTRK) – A 16-year-old girl was shot and killed at her home early Friday morning in Humbbell, and her mother’s boyfriend is accused of her murder.
Van Henry Brisbane, 60, has been charged with murder. He has not yet appeared in court, but his bail is set at $ 1 million.
The victim, identified as 16-year-old Lauren Juma, had her whole life ahead of her. The teenager had just joined the cheerleading team at Nimetz High School and dreamed of joining her older sister in the US Air Force after graduation.
But now her family is ruined. The tragic series of events began early Friday morning when Juma Facetimed with her mother and one of her older sisters.
“It was 1 o’clock at night and she just said she was acting very strange and wanted me to come and get her,” said Kerika Harmon, Lauren’s 19-year-old sister. “That’s exactly what I did.”
But Harmon would never see his sister alive again.
“By the time I got there, the police were out and searching the house,” Harmon said, tears streaming down his cheeks. “I was there about three minutes before I heard two shots and ran to the house.
According to court records, Lauren told her mother Lori Young in a call on Facetime that Brisbane was standing in her room in the dark and wanted her mother to tell him to come out, which she did. Lauren then shouted, “Mom, he has a gun,” court records say. The conversation was then terminated.
Meanwhile, Young, who was on a work training program in Austin, rushed back to the home she had shared with Brisbane and her daughter for three years.
“She was 16. She had just joined the cheerleading team,” the heartbroken mother recalled. “She had a bright future ahead of her and would join the United States Air Force when she graduated.”
Family members who have met Brisbane over the past few years have said outwardly that he looked friendly and had no problems.
“He just looked like a really good man when we met him,” recalls Cousin Antoinette Buckley. “No one expected that to happen.”
Harmon told ABC13 that Brisbane had been “weird” before.
Harris County Sheriff’s Homicide Investigators have not revealed a possible motive.
“He could rot in jail,” Young said, her voice broken with emotion. “He had no reason to take my baby’s life. At sixteen.”
Brisbane is due back in court on Monday.
Statement by Aldine ISD:
“This morning the district was informed of the death of one of our high school students in Nimetz, who died early Friday morning. We are deeply saddened to hear of her death. Our community mourns her death. Our thoughts and prayers are with her family, relatives and friends in this very difficult time. Counselors and the area’s crisis team have been mobilized to respond to this tragic event and will be available to students and staff to help them in this difficult time. “
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