“I really hope they rot in prison for a very long time. I turned them in,” Oklahoma teen Lisa Kepler said of her parents, accused of gunning down her boyfriend in a drive by shooting last week. Lisa identified her father, Shannon Kepler, 54, as the shooter, while her mother drove the car.Both he and his wife, Gina Kepler, 48, were arrested after 19-year-old Jeremy Lake was killed. They were off duty at the time.
The teenagers were walking home as a black SUV rolled up at around 9:30 p.m. The girl’s father jumped out and unloaded on Lake, while the mom stayed in the car. “I walked away and Jeremy tried to introduce himself, and my dad shot him,” Lisa said.
Shannon hit Lake “two or three times,” in addition to shooting the victim’s 13-year-old brother, who was sitting on a porch. The youngster was only grazed by the bullet, and Lisa ran to hide behind a bush.
Although Lake was Black and Kepler is White, the teen did not say whether or not race played a roll in the shooting. The Kepler’s kicked their adopted daughter out of the house two weeks ago, for making bad “life decisions” which she did not detail. They dropped her off at Tulsa Day Center for the Homeless, where she met and started dating Lake. He would “come around sometimes” to help take out the trash or bring donations into the homeless shelter, executive director Sandra Lewis said. “He was always very helpful,” she recalled.
Lake invited Lisa to stay in the home he shared with his aunt, Pam Wilkins. The grieving relative described Lake as “the life of the party” with a “lot of love” to give. “No matter if we argued, he never let a day go by without saying, ‘I love you.'”
Shannon, a 24-year veteran was charged with first-degree murder and shooting with the intent to kill, and his wife with an accessory to murder. The couple was expected to remain on paid administrative leave, pending official charges.
A resident described the Keplers as “wonderful” neighbors. They have been placed in an isolated area of the jail facility, to keep them away from any inmates they may have had contact with on the job.
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Photo: KJRH
