A 49-year-old father has been charged with second-degree murder two years after he shot his daughter’s boyfriend.
Charles Frederick Heller from Washington fatally shot Dustyn Hunt, 21, in February 2019 after he found him hiding in his 20-year-old daughter’s bedroom.
According to reports, he grabbed a weapon before going to his daughter Lauryn Heller’s room after she sneaked her boyfriend inside.
Mr. Heller claims he opened fire as he believed Hunt was about to choke him, but Lauryn argued that her boyfriend did not try to attack him.
The father was charged with second-degree murder in Snohomish County Superior Court.
The victim’s mother, Lisa Ledbetter Hunt, told Daily Mail that she believes the killing of her son was ‘motivated by race.’
“I really believe it was racially motivated. What else would it have been? It’s really the only explanation,” Ledbetter Hunt said. “I do hope one day to look him in the eyes to see how much pain he’s caused.”
She added: “I know no matter what, nothing will bring my son back or take away from the everyday pain of knowing I will never see him again. He will never get married, have kids, have a career, come to family dinners but this decision [to charge him] does make the pain a little easier to handle.
“It also has made it so I can breathe a bit better. Some of the anger I have inside, which is quite a bit, has been lifted.”
Hunt had been dating Lauryn for several weeks before his death. The two were watching a movie and drinking wine in her bedroom the night was shot.
Lauryn believes race may have played a factor in the fatal incident.
“White privilege is real. Dustyn was the kindest soul and my father lost his own self control and KILLED him yet wasn’t even CHARGED with anything,” she wrote on Facebook in August 2019.
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