NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF-TV) — As police actively search for the man who shot two La Vergne officers over the weekend, the mother of the suspect is pleading for him to turn himself in.
She turned to NewsChannel 5, hoping that John Drake Junior would hear her message and her anguish, as the manhunt for her son is now in its third day.
Veleria East looked into the camera as if she were looking at and speaking to her son.
"You need to just turn yourself in. I still love you and I always will because you are my child. I can’t stop loving you, but I need you to do the right thing and turn yourself in please," she pleaded.
East said she just wants her son to stop running.
"Come home please. This is your mama telling you to come, turn yourself in please. It’s not going to get any better," she urged.
East said she last saw and talked with Drake Jr. a week ago, when he came by to show her his new car, the same car apparently police were investigating this weekend as a stolen vehicle when Drake fired shots outside the Dollar General store in La Vergne.
And ever since East got word Saturday that he'd shot two police officers and then ran, as any mother, she's been worried sick and is desperately afraid of what might happen.
"I just want him to turn himself in so he’ll be okay. I would rather see him get locked up than we have to bury my son. I don’t wanna have to do that. I’m sorry. I don’t want to have to do that," East said with tears in her eyes.
And to the officers who were shot, she offered a sincere apology.
"I’m very sorry. I don’t know what happened. I don’t know how it happened. I don’t wish this on anybody. And I’m so thankful that y’all were not, I’m so thankful that y’all are living and breathing," East said.
East said her son has struggled since he got in with the wrong crowd as a teen and involved with drugs.
And she wants him and everyone else to know that she does not condone what he's done because it was wrong.
But East believes the 38-year-old man she still calls Little John is running because he's scared and she hopes he's listening.
"Find the strength and think about your mama and come and turn yourself in. That’s what I would tell him. You know the right thing to do. Let’s get it done," East said.
As we have reported, John Drake Junior's father is Metro's Police Chief John Drake.
East told NewsChannel 5 that the two of them married young and divorced back when they were just 20, and John Jr. was less than a year.
Chief Drake, we're told, is out of town and was unavailable for an interview, but shared with NewsChannel 5 a new statement:
"I continue to pray for the full recovery of the two La Vergne officers and hope for the safe apprehension of my son so that he can be held accountable. Anyone who sees him should notify law enforcement."
