Daughter Of Murder Victim Steve Gerecke Has Message For Teen Killers’ Parents
From the archive: published Jul 16, 2015, 11 years ago. Details may have changed since.
Steve Gerecke (pictured below) was coming home from his shift at Spectators in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on the night of June 26 when he encountered six thieves leaving his home.
He confronted them at the scene and was gunned down in his own driveway. Now police have arrested six teens for the murder, with one in particular, 16-year-old Jeremiah King, believed to be the shooter by the authorities.
Gerecke’s daughter, Heather Alter (pictured above), had some strong words, not just for the teens but for their parents as well in a recent press conference.
“I want to address the parents of these animals. Where were you?” Alter said. “They executed my father in a horrific way. My dad didn’t deserve this. I hold you, the parents, responsible. Just know a tsunami is coming.”
Some on the KOAT comments page did not see eye-to-eye with Alter on where she placed the blame, suggesting that it wasn’t fair of her to blame the parents when she didn’t know the full stories behind each of the alleged perpetrators.
“Maybe they [the parents] were asleep!” suggested one commenter. She continued.
“[The teens] are not three years old… Are all of the people on here with perfect families and parents? You can seriously tell me none of you parent blamers have ever snuck out? Sure this didn’t happen, maybe, but it could have. My own kids have snuck out. I was notorious for sneaking out — my MOM was either at work, or asleep. If there are so many perfect parents out there why are we such an imperfect society?”
Some also blamed police for the death of Steve Gerecke, pointing out that they were able to track down the youth based on surveillance videos from previous break-ins and vandalisms in the area and that one of the teens involved in those incidents had used a credit card belonging to Gerecke’s wife [ via Opposing Views ], which led to the other five suspects.
“Nearly everything [the police] used to find the teens was available prior to this man’s death, but apparently property damage, breaking and entering and vandalism just isn’t important enough to take the extra time to figure out who is behind it all,” said another commenter.
Four of the teens will be charged as adults, police have said. Those individuals include King and Christopher Rodriguez, 16; Ryan Archibeque, 17; and Andrew Hubler, 15. Two 14-year-olds will be tried as juvenile offenders.
Do you think the death of Steve Gerecke could have been prevented, and should the parents of these teens be held responsible? Sound off in the comments section.
