Mother, son die in Palmetto shooting

MANATEE – It’s scene that has become all too familiar in Manatee County.

A woman staggered through a crowd of somber bystanders.

She said, “No. No. No. No.”

It was a wish to reverse what had happened.

Clarence Jerome White, 22, and his mother, Patricia White, 43, both died from gunshot wounds inside a duplex in the 3900 block of Third Avenue Drive East in Palmetto about 11:45 p.m. Thursday, according to the Manatee County Sheriff's Office.

Authorities believe Patricia White was shot by one of two suspects who entered the residence, and that Clarence White died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after his mother was killed.

“No,” cried a woman collapsing into a man’s arms and sobbing into his chest inches behind yellow crime scene tape.

One of the suspects, Lamont Yarn, 19, was shot during the incident and was taken Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg. He is expected to survive and faces a murder charge, the sheriff's office said this morning.

Detectives also are looking for the second suspect.

Just after midnight, neighbors and family members of the victims stood in the street watching deputies continue to rope off more and more area around the house. Crime scene vans and homicide detectives began to arrive.

“I just want to know if this is another home invasion. I have two infants in diapers inside,” said a 26-year-old woman who was standing in her driveway in her night gown. She declined to give her name.

“This really is close to home with everything going on right now. It doesn’t matter where you live or where you go. This is happening everywhere. It’s kind of scary,” she said.

Jerry Gonzalez, who lives across the street from the duplex, said he heard gunfire when he was inside his home. He said he stepped outside to the sound of sirens blaring.

He said he heard two shots.

“They were pretty loud. One right after another,” he said.

According to deputies, four other people – three men and one woman - were inside the residence at the time of the shooting.

They told deputies two men entered the residence and began yelling before shooting. Authorities do not believe this was a random home invasion and shooting, according to a news release.

Deputies were questioning two of the witnesses. They took fingerprints and pictures of the woman and man at the crime scene just before 3 a.m.

No arrests were made and no possible suspect information was released as of this morning.

A girlfriend of one of the victims arrived an hour later. She collapsed outside of a car as other women tried to help her to her feet. She cried, “Please no. Please no. Please no. That boy means everything to me. It can’t be.”

Brenda Dixon, Clarence White’s grandmother, had fresh tears in her eyes as she mourned her grandson.

She said White was just promoted at Wal-Mart in Palmetto.

“He was just a good person. He was a loving person. He was funny. He was witty,” Dixon said.

She said he was most passionate about his 3-year-old daughter.

“He was thinking about what he wanted to do for her,” she said. “It’s going to be hard. She loved her dad.”

White also had a 1-year-old child, according to court records.

Dixon said White went to church this past Sunday and was recently saved.

“He was turning his life around,” she said.

Patricia White is the 26th person this year to die in a homicide in Manatee County this year.

Anyone with information about the shooting can call the sheriff’s office at (941) 747-3011 or Crimestoppers at (866) 634-TIPS (8477).

This story was originally published October 2, 2009 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Mother, son die in Palmetto shooting."