Dad charged with 1st-degree murder of pregnant girlfriend (Shreveport, Louisiana)

Dad LAMONDRE TUCKER is charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of his pregnant girlfriend. She was found three days after the shooting--floating in a pond.

http://www.shreveporttimes.com/article/20090920/NEWS01/909200311/1060

March pays tribute to slain teen and her unborn child
Event was an act of remembrance and violence prevention
By Loresha Wilson September 20, 2009

Firefighters in uniform were there. So were Bible-carrying ministers with words of encouragement.

There were even a few children carrying flowers among the 60-plus family, friends and other supporters who turned out Saturday for an emotional peace march to pay tribute to Tavia Sills and her unborn child, who were found floating in a north Shreveport pond a year ago.

"I'm on the battlefield for my Lord," the crowd sang before marchers clasped hands and held a moment of silence for the slain 19-year-old. Two people fishing in the pond at the end of Legardy Street spotted Sills body Sept. 12, 2008, floating at water's edge on the west side of the pond. The 18 year old had been shot.

The group marched Saturday from Linear Charter School to the dirt road leading to the pond. Vickie Britton, the teen's mother, said the "March for Love" was an act of remembrance and violence prevention. Britton sponsored the march to call an end to abuse and asked the community to practice love for self and others.

"It's a memory for Tavia, but I want it to be a walk for every family who has been victimized by violence," Britton said. "I feel like, in this city, what is missing is love, and we need to put love back into our communities."

The marchers raised candles in the air and a participant led the group in prayer. Sills' father then placed a wreath on the fence that lines the dirt road, and one by one friends and family of the young lady placed flowers in the ground below the wreath.

"I miss her dearly. She was pregnant with my God child," Rhonda Harris said as tears rolled down her face. "It's so hard. We were so close for so long.

"Tavia was like my best friend, my sister, my cousin, everything to me. But I know she's in a better place."

Sills' ex-boyfriend and the alleged father of her unborn child LaMondre Tucker and his friend Marcus A. Taylor are charged with first-degree murder in connection with her death. The victim planned to welcome her baby boy into the world Jan. 18.

She disappeared Sept. 9, 2008, when Tucker picked her up from her north Shreveport home to meet relatives. Three days later the body was found in the pond.

Police say Tucker plotted to kill Sills after his girlfriend found out that Sills was pregnant. The girlfriend was not involved in the plan to kill Sills, but police say Taylor assisted Tucker in carrying out the plot. Both men are awaiting trial and face the death penalty if convicted as charged.

Britton says she forgives the men who killed her daughter, but hopes they pay for what they did.
"There's not a day goes by that I don't think about Tavia, that I don't look at her picture, that I don't talk to her and want to see her," Britton said. The mother had 'RIP Tavia on her shirt. "I was mad at first, but when there was a problem she'd always said 'mama let's do something about it.' It's a problem of violence and lack of love in this community, and I'm going to do something about it."

Britton hopes the march will become an annual event for victims of violence and t
heir families.