Police make arrest in Brookshire double murder

BROOKSHIRE, TX

Brookshire police say tips led them to 26-year-old Dominique Lasker after he was arrested in San Diego for robbing a bank. He is now charged with capital murder as well as two counts of murder related to the killings last March. What's shocking is he's a man the victims not only knew but knew very well.

The home in Broookshire where the murder happened was quiet on Thursday. The victim's son still lives here. A man the family treated like a son stands accused.

"He practically raised him when he was younger," Brookshire Mayor Joey Vaughn said. "He stayed with him for a little bit, pretty much did everything he could for him."

Vaughn doesn't know what to think of the news announced Thursday afternoon.

"It's never good news," he said.

Lasker has been indicted for the murders of Stan Jackson and his longtime girlfriend, Janella Edwards. They were babysitting Vaughn's two children the night they were shot to death last March. The kids were asleep in the home at the time.

Vaughn knows Lasker from high school.

"It's upsetting that for someone they knew so well, and I guess you'd say we knew so well," he said.

While Vaughn is saddened, perhaps no one is more surprised than Shirley Williams.

"It's still unbelievable because he's a part of our family," she said.

Williams is Jackson's sister and says Lasker lived at either her house or Jackson's since he was 14.

"He was a young man who needed help and my husband and I and the rest of the family had compassion on him, and took him in and you know -- didn't want him to be one of those who fell through the cracks, give him an opportunity to have a successful life," Williams said.

Friends say Lasker graduated from Brookshire's Royal High School, where he played football. He joined the Marines several years, served in Japan and Germany and told family and friends he was at home on leave at the time of the murders.

Brookshire police won't reveal a possible motive.

Vaughn's children were so close to danger that night.

"There's not a day that day that goes by I don't think about it," Vaughn said.

And while he had always hoped the suspect would be someone he didn't know, he believes the people of his small town will be comforted by the fact this brutal crime wasn't random.

"It kind of shook the town up a little bit and I think this kind of gives everyone reassurance that Brookshire is still a good place to be," Vaughn said.

Lasker is awaiting extradition in California to face the charges here. Police say he is cooperating. There's no word on whether the Waller County District Attorney will seek the death penalty.