Photo: Courtesy of Kyle Carruth's Attorney
#JusticeForChad is spreading.
By Isaac Serna-Diez — Written on Nov 29, 2021
A TikTok demanding justice for a Texas father who was allegedly killed by his ex's partner is taking off as a heartbroken family share their story.
The family say Chad Read was killed by his ex-wife's partner in a heated argument.
Madison Faye Luscombe, who identifies herself as Read's stepdaughter, posted a video to TikTok of her family gathered around her mother, making a toast to Chad with the caption “We are tired, we are angry, we want justice,” sparking the popularity of the hashtag #JusticeForChad.
What happened to Chad Read?
On November 5th in Lubbock, Texas, 54-year old Chad Read reportedly went to his ex-wife’s house looking for his children that were in Christina Read’s custody according to their time allotments from the divorce.
Christina’s boyfriend, Kyle Carruth, was there, and when things got heated between the divorced parents, Carruth allegedly decided to go inside and get a long-barreled rifle from inside the house to get Read off of their property before ultimately shooting and killing him.
In her video, Luscombe wrote “Our stepdad was shot and killed by a man with high profile ties within our community. Our mom and 11-year-old brother witnessed the shooting and captured it on video.”
According to Luscombe, the police didn’t arrest Carruth that day and there weren’t any charges to be laid against him, but the family is looking for answers.
Kyle Carruth claims he killed Chad Read in self-defense.
Read's camp believes that it was murder, but Carruth’s attorneys are claiming that he acted in self-defense — an argument that has been brought up time and time again, especially recently.
In the wake of the Rittenhouse verdict, there’s now a new self-defense trial brewing in the prosecution of Carruth that hasn’t happened yet.
Video footage of Chad Read's death has been released.
The widow’s attorney attached a statement and a video of the shooting to the petition to regain custody of Chad’s kids from their mother.
“Jennifer Read, the widow of Chad Read, has filed a Petition today seeking to take custody of Chad Read’s children from their mother, Christina Read,” the news release states.
“Because the new Lubbock Public Access System makes this information available to the public, and the likelihood of the information contained in her Petition and Affidavit being obtained by the media, she has decided that it is best to simply release the information directly instead of waiting for it to be discovered.”
The mobile phone video released by KCBD was edited to remove cursing and to cut out Chad’s body dropping to the ground but shows the altercation that escalated and ultimately led to his death.
Carruth can be seen entering his home as the altercation between Read and Christina worsens and steps back out with a gun and asks him to leave the property.
Read aggresses, and swears at him, telling him to use it or “I’ll take it from you and use it on you.” As they bump chests, Carruth leaves the gun pointed downward with the barrel behind Chad.
When Read touches the gun, Carruth steps back and fires a warning shot at Chad’s feet, which Read responds to by following Carruth and trying to wrestle the gun away from him.
While Carruth is free of the altercation, he raises the gun and fires two shots at Read, killing him, and then telling Jennifer Read, the mother in the car who is filming, that he told them to leave.
“I believe that Christina Read and Kyle Carruth engaged in a conspiracy to assault and/or murder Chad that day,” Jennifer wrote in the affidavit.
She said that Christina wasn’t surprised after the murder took place, that Read had been unarmed and hadn’t threatened to harm anyone until the situation was escalated by Carruth’s gun and his yelling.
Jennifer believes that she should have custody of the kids, citing that “The children are aware that Kyle Carruth shot and killed their father in front of their mother, step-brother, and myself. Christina’s decision to allow either of these children to be in Kyle Carruth’s presence has caused, and continues to cause, significant impairment of their emotional well-being. The oldest child has expressed to me that he blames his mother for the shooting, and that he will run away from home if he sees Kyle there again.”
The Lubbock shooting case is in the hands of the Texas Attorney General and will see an update pending the investigation, where hopefully Jennifer Read’s family will see justice served.
Isaac Serna-Diez is a writer who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice, and politics. Follow him on Twitter here.