The new year brings new beginnings for many, but one Anchorage mother is preparing to say a difficult goodbye. Lennie Moren’s son, James Lucas Moren, was shot and killed in the alley behind the Gaslight Bar on Christmas Eve.
“On Christmas day, we chose to come and spend Christmas with him,” she said, gesturing toward his vehicle still parked in the alley, the last place her son was alive.
She said 25 to 30 people showed up to place tea lights and flowers on the vehicle, and more have appeared every day since.
Lucas Moren’s vehicle behind the Gaslight Bar. Courtesy Moriah Kearse
Lennie Moren said her son’s vehicle had broken down, so he was waiting for the Gaslight manager, his roommate, to get off work and drive him home. That’s when police say surveillance cameras show 36-year-old David Dennis drive up and give 46-year-old Roy Schauer the gun he used to kill Lucas Moren.
His mother said she doesn’t know if or how the men knew her son, or why anyone would want to hurt him.
“To know my son was to love him,” Lennie Moren added.
Lucas Moren was well known in the downtown community after working in the food industry for years.
But the mother and son are no strangers to violence. Lennie Moren was the victim of a machete attack in 2007 that left her disabled.
“Lucas spent seven years taking care of me and getting me from a wheelchair to dancing again,” she said.
Now she says it’s her turn to do something for him, and she has the help of a community behind her.
“I am so overwhelmed with the generosity of his friends,” she exclaimed.
Thanks to donations on a Go Fund Me page, Lennie Moren will be able to sprinkle her son’s ashes over Mt. Susitna, also known as Sleeping Lady, later this year, a family tradition she hopes will continue with her one day.
“We all know the story of the Sleeping Lady in comparison to Denali, and that’s where his grandmother is sprinkled, so they can always see each other,” she explained.
Until he’s laid to rest, she takes comfort in the word graffitied behind his car long before Christmas Eve.
“It spells out Jesus,” she said. “Jesus is behind him.”
KTVA 11’s Daniella Rivera can be reached via email or on Facebook and Twitter.
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