New Orleans Woman Loses Husband and Son to Gun Violence Nearly 10 Years After Youngest Son Was Shot to Death

The unimaginable happened to 65-year-old Leslie Lange just 12 hours into the new year, and nearly 10 years after she lost her youngest son to gun violence in the Gentilly neighborhood of New Orleans. According to the Times-Picayune, around noon on New Year’s Day, a “hail of gunfire” claimed the lives of “her husband and last living son,” an incident perhaps far too tragic and so familiar that it had Mrs. Lange gasping for air while health care workers put her on a gurney. 

Lange’s husband, Desmond Lange Sr., 64, and son, Desmonde Lange, Jr., 42, had been standing by their pickup truck in the driveway of their family home when they were shot by an assailant in a vehicle, who then drove away, according to the Times-Picayune. 

On Friday Frank Robertson, a spokesman for the New Orleans Police Department, told The Root that they don’t have a motive or suspects yet, and noted that the “investigation was ongoing” when asked if the victims of the double homicide were the intended targets of the shooting.

The elder Lange was a housing rehabilitation supervisor. Neighbors and relatives described the family as “good people.”

“Good people. Good people,” Justice Barber, a relative, told the Times-Picayune. “I never seen this coming.”

The family’s youngest son, Jeffrey Michael Lange, who died at age 29 in 2005, was driving his car when he was shot several times in the torso.

Read more at the Times-Picayune.