Young man cuts the heads off grandparents

Quinton Dashawn Laster was arrested in the shooting and decapitation of his grandmother and her husband. (Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office) An Oklahoma man has been arrested in the shooting and decapitation of his grandmother and her husband in their home, where the couple ran a day-care center for several young children.

Quinton Dashawn Laster, 20, was taken into custody Tuesday after police found Sharon Reed, 59, and James Earl Reed, 78, dead in their Oklahoma City home, police said. Authorities told the Oklahoman that Laster “fully confessed” to shooting the couple and then “cutting their heads off.” Laster was booked Wednesday and is being held without bond on two counts of first-degree murder, according to booking records.Police said they discovered “three small children” in a converted garage that was being used as a day-care center.

“The children were unharmed, removed from the scene and later reunited with their families,” police said in a statement. [‘Lock the door!’ 911 caller says during Oklahoma beheading. ‘He has stabbed someone.’] Jerry Lyon, a neighbor, said Laster showed up at his door Tuesday, saying someone had killed his grandmother.“He was scared and nervous and confused, like he didn’t know what to do next,” Lyon told the Oklahoman, adding: “He kept saying ‘grandma, grandma,’ but the way he said it was so fast I didn’t understand.
“I said, ‘Spell it.’ And he spelled ‘S-H-A-R-O-N.’ “

Lyon told the newspaper that he saw a gun in Laster’s pocket and asked him to put it on the ground. Laster did, but picked it up again, he said. Several neighbors called 911, according to news reports. About 2 p.m., police conducted a welfare check and found the bodies in the house.“He didn’t deserve it, and she didn’t deserve it,” Sharon Reed’s sister, Brenda Jackson, told NBC affiliate KFOR. “I just don’t know why either one of them are dead.” [‘Listen lady, the baby is deceased,’ man says on 911 call about decapitated infant]

Jackson told the Oklahoman that it was “a bloody mess everywhere” inside the home. “I saw their blood, black and turned dark,” she told the newspaper. “JR, his grandfather — he killed him in the front room, the living room — and Sharon was on her way to the closet. I think she was going to get her gun.” Jackson told the Oklahoman that Laster and his brother had been living in the home with their grandparents since last year.Authorities have not determined a motive. Jackson told the newspaper that Laster had not been diagnosed with a mental illness.[Pregnant Colorado woman stabbed, her baby ‘removed,’ after answering Craigslist ad]

Another neighbor, Hal Hartsock, told the Associated Press that the Reeds were beloved and respected within the community.
“They were the kind of neighbors everyone wants,” he said.

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