Family recalls a good father

STOCKTON - Lakisha Lacy trembled in the night air as she awaited word about her husband.

The last time she had seen Ramon Lacy was at their North Stockton home Thursday afternoon as she left to pick up their 8-year-old son from school. Hours later, someone was on the other end of the telephone telling her that her husband had been shot.

Ramon Lacy, 33, was found dead with a gunshot wound to the head along West Eight Mile Road near Rio Blanco around 8 p.m. His black Mercedes was found nearby. But it would take his family more than an hour at the crime scene to actually find out whether the man on the other side of the police tape was their loved one.

"They wouldn't let us near him," said Otis Ashley, Ramon Lacy's father-in-law. "We couldn't believe it was him. ... He didn't have no reason to be there; he didn't fish, didn't know anyone who lives out there."

Les Garcia, a spokesman for the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office, said detectives worked as quickly as possible to identify the victim but were hindered because Ramon Lacy's brother had removed his wallet and cell phone prior to their arrival.

Lacy was eventually identified through a Polaroid photograph technicians snapped at the scene.

People close to Lacy described him as an affable man who worked in real estate with several partners. They said he was originally from San Francisco and that the family had lived in Menlo Park before moving to Stockton some years ago.

"I'm sitting here trippin' how come an honest, hard-working person like that gotta die," said one neighbor, who added Lacy was always respectful and not selfish.

Lacy has two other children from a previous relationship and is also survived by his mother, who lives in Vallejo, Ashley said. Most of the family lives out of the area, he said.

Ashley described Lacy as a good father who often attended his son's basketball games and hollered out his support from the stands.

Ashley spoke to Lacy on the phone Thursday morning and noticed nothing strange or unusual, he said.

Detectives say there are no known suspects nor a motive in the killing.

Contact reporter Karina Ioffee at (209) 546-8279 or

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