Cycle Of Death Slain Man’s Mother Has Suffered Grief From Violence Before

In 1968, Pearl Buckner lost her young husband to violence when he intervened in a domestic dispute. Now, she’s reliving that nightmare with the death of her older son.

She’s determined to save her grandson, 13-year-old Alonzo III, who now shares her modest Skyway home.

“He says, ‘Grandma, you’re too overprotective,’ and I know I am,” Buckner said Tuesday. “But it’s just scary.”

She was in court at the Regional Justice Center here for the trial of the man accused of shooting her son, Alonzo Buckner Jr., who died last fall at 31 when three men forced their way into his Federal Way home.

Prosecutors say her son - who graduated from computer school a month before his death - was dealing drugs when he died. They say the intruders planned to rob him but that one of the men, Aljeron Pleasant, lost control and shot him as his wife and children slept.

Buckner said she had tried to persuade him to distance himself from drugs.

“He still didn’t deserve to be shot in his own home,” she said. “Now his kids have to go through life without a father because of some stupid people and guns.”

Buckner said she’d had high hopes for him, noting that he studied for computer school while tending his four sons alone. At the time, his wife was imprisoned on a drug charge.

“He was a good man,” she said. “I don’t know anybody else who’d take care of four kids by himself.”

She had to leave the courtroom as Deputy Prosecutor Lisa Marchese described the crime in opening statements Tuesday.

Alonzo Buckner’s last words, delivered to one of the robbers, were “Please don’t hurt my babies,” Marchese told the court.

Pleasant, 21, of Des Moines, is charged with first-degree murder, assault and robbery in a short-lived crime spree Sept. 20, 1996. One accomplice, Lonnie Jones, 19, has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was expected to testify for the state at Pleasant’s trial. A 17-year-old, suspected of shooting and wounding an Auburn woman earlier that night, has not yet been charged.

Shooting victim Sheryl Fishback testified that she was shot in her car after stopping for cigarettes at a gas station on Pacific Highway South. A car came out of a dark alley and a man jumped out of it and ran toward her, she said.

“I got my door closed and hit the lock right as he grabbed my door handle,” Fishback said.

He demanded her money and started shooting when she said she didn’t have any. One bullet struck her arm, a second hit her shoulder.

“I played dead,” Fishback said. “I figured if he realized he didn’t kill me, he’d shoot me some more.”

She could not identify her attacker, but prosecutors say the bullets came from the gun used to kill Alonzo Buckner. Marchese said the men had been looking for an easy target “to warm up for the main event later.”

Pearl Buckner couldn’t bear to hear the crime described again.

“This just brings back memories,” she said.

She was pregnant with their third child when her husband, Alonzo Buckner, was killed at age 23.

A family friend had come to their home seeking refuge from an abusive husband, and they let her spend the night. But the husband managed to get Alonzo Buckner thrown in jail.

When he got out, Buckner - a janitor and taxi driver - went to the man’s home to discuss the matter.

He was shot dead at the front door, his widow said. The shooter was acquitted after pleading self-defense.

Her surviving son, Jody, 28, her daughter, Dana, and eight grandchildren help her keep going, Bucker said.

“That’s what keeps me strong: the love of the family I have left.”