'I just can't believe it happened,' she says
Just as shocked was a close relative of the man accused of killing McKnight, Ronald Gasser.
During a phone interview Thursday night, Gasser's sister, Sharon Gasser Weileman, called her brother "a gentle giant."
"I just can't believe it happened," she said.
She called her brother "the most generous person. Low-key."
Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand said at the scene of the shooting that detectives were interviewing Gasser, 54, of Gretna.
Normand said Gasser's and McKnight's vehicles pulled up side by side at the corner of Behrman Highway and Holmes Boulevard.
Moments later, the 28-year-old McKnight lay dead on the pavement. Gasser stayed at the scene and surrendered a weapon to deputies who responded to reports of the shooting.
As tributes and memorials to McKnight poured in on social media and elsewhere, Gasser's sister said she was having difficulty grasping the circumstances surrounding the shooting, which she said she first heard about when she got home from work and turned on the news.
Weileman said that brother worked in computers and she did not know why he would have been driving on Behrman Highway on Thursday afternoon. By Thursday night, she had not been able to speak to her brother and did not know whether he had retained an attorney.
Gasser has one daughter, his sister said. He is the registered owner of a telecommunications firm and a real estate business, according to state records.
Jefferson Parish court records indicate that he was cited for simple battery in February 2006; the count was later dismissed.
Weileman said she didn't know what happened when her brother was arrested 10 years ago or why he might have been carrying a gun Thursday.
"I've never seen (the gun), so I couldn't tell you," she said.
No comments:
Post a Comment