{"id":323966,"date":"2025-01-05T13:15:14","date_gmt":"2025-01-05T19:15:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=323966"},"modified":"2025-01-04T08:16:08","modified_gmt":"2025-01-04T14:16:08","slug":"christmas-tragedy-man-dies-protect-preborn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/christmas-tragedy-man-dies-protect-preborn\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas Eve tragedy: Man dies protecting fianc\u00e9e and preborn child"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p>Tragedy struck a young family on <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/sons-final-words-shot-dead-protecting-fiancee-8767709\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Christmas Eve<\/a> when a Missouri man <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2024\/12\/31\/us-news\/missouri-mom-says-son-sacrificed-himself-to-save-pregnant-fiance-from-his-deranged-dad-on-christmas-eve\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">gave up his own life<\/a> to save that of his fianc\u00e9e and their preborn child.<\/p>\n<p>26-year-old Kevin Ward allegedly got into an argument with his father, 61-year-old Harold Luster, on December 24 while visiting him for Christmas. Luster believed his wife, Katherine Ward \u2014 Kevin&#8217;s mother \u2014 was having an affair. Their on-again off-again relationship was abusive according to Ward. Luster <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/man-fatally-shoots-son-withholding-information-wifes-alleged-affair-police-8767189\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">accused Kevin<\/a> of withholding information about the alleged affair. Kevin and his fianc\u00e9e, Kaitlyn, tried to defend Ward, at which point, Luster <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sunherald.com\/news\/nation-world\/national\/article297600293.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">turned on Kaitlyn<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Court documents said Luster turned to Kaitlyn and asked, \u201cDo you wanna get shot?\u201d at which point Kevin intervened, telling her to get a knife, and &#8220;to run and call 911 if something happened.&#8221; As she left, she heard Kevin tell his father, \u201cYou\u2019re not going to shoot her,\u201d and Luster responded, \u201cYou want to get shot instead?\u201d Kaitlyn said she then saw Luster shoot Kevin once in the head.<\/p>\n<p>Ward <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ksdk.com\/article\/news\/local\/as-seen-on-tv\/mom-wants-justice-high-ridge-murder-son-kevin-ward\/63-656c5d4b-2a24-4a0a-be02-a7a1c565a6bb\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">told KSDK<\/a>\u00a0that she and his three brothers are devastated by the loss, especially as Kevin was excited to be a father. &#8220;Kevin was my go to person,&#8221; she said. &#8220;My son was the best. He was a great kid that didn&#8217;t deserve that night and I wish 1,000 times he never went down there. But me and him never would have thought this would ever happen. It&#8217;s almost like I&#8217;m in a nightmare and I can&#8217;t get out.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u00a0<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hTqJCtlLSi8?si=ol4pR3Rsp8ALHbdP\" width=\"640\" height=\"355\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>READ: <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/missouri-charged-murders-pregnant-twins\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Missouri man charged with three murders in deaths of woman and preborn twins<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>She further said Luster called her while the argument was going on, and that she could hear Luster in the background. Katherine said the last words she heard from her son were, &#8220;Dad, why are you doing this? I don&#8217;t deserve this.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Still, the grieving mother said Kevin was willing to give up his life for his child. &#8220;Kevin died with a gunshot to his forehead and his hands tucked in his pockets,&#8221; she said. &#8220;He was ultimately going to shoot Kevin&#8217;s fianc\u00e9e and Kevin sacrificed himself, he was the hero that night. He would rather die than have her and that baby taken.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>According to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/JeffCoMoSheriff\/posts\/pfbid02ghJc17CR1z3wPRMv7c6uSBhzYQSxDiRkgUUWUEFeGDpZxXLVK3a9zHvx69hfAazTl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jefferson County Sheriff&#8217;s Office<\/a>, Luster has been charged with first-degree murder, and jailed without bond.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><span class=\"s1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/end-taxpayer-dollars-to-planned-parenthood\/\"><b><i>Tell President Trump, RFK, Jr., Elon, and Vivek:<\/i><\/b><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><span class=\"s1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/end-taxpayer-dollars-to-planned-parenthood\/\"><b><i>Stop killing America\u2019s future. Defund Planned Parenthood NOW!<\/i><\/b><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tragedy struck a young family on Christmas Eve when a Missouri man gave up his own life to save that of his fianc\u00e9e and their preborn child. 26-year-old Kevin Ward allegedly got into an argument with his father, 61-year-old Harold Luster, on December 24 while visiting him for Christmas. Luster believed his wife, Katherine Ward [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":323992,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[15,3473],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Christmas Eve tragedy: Man dies protecting fianc\u00e9e and preborn child<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"On Christmas Eve, tragedy struck when a young man died a hero while protecting his fianc\u00e9e and their preborn child.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/christmas-tragedy-man-dies-protect-preborn\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" 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