NEW YORK (Reuters) - A mother who drowned herself and three of her children by intentionally driving her minivan into the Hudson River was buried separately from her children on Thursday after their father intervened in plans to inter them together.
A large crowd of mourners followed a single white casket into the First Baptist Church in Spring Valley, New York, on Thursday morning for Lashanda Armstrong's funeral.
The children's father, Jean H. Pierre, did not attend as he did not want to be a "distraction", Stephen J Powers, one of his lawyers, told Reuters.
Armstrong, 25, killed herself along with her two youngest sons, Landen and Lance, and 11-month-old daughter, Laianna, last week after an argument at her home with Pierre, said police in Newburgh, a city about 60 miles north of New York City.
Her eldest son, 10-year-old La'Shaun, who has a different father, was in the van but saved himself by climbing through a window as it disappeared beneath the waters.
Pierre had disagreed with the Armstrong family's decision to make funeral arrangements without consulting him as the children's next of kin, his lawyer said. The three children will instead be buried on Monday in a separate cemetery overlooking the Hudson River.
"After consulting with the Armstrong family, I have decided that the funeral arrangements for Landen, Lance and Laianna should be separate from that of Lashanda's," Pierre said in a statement released through his lawyers.
"My deepest sympathy goes out to La'Shaun and the Armstrong family," Pierre said.
Although he did not object to Armstrong being buried alongside their children, Pierre wanted the children to have a separate funeral and objected to plans to bury his infant daughter and her mother in the same casket.
"He thought it was inappropriate in light of the fact that the mother murdered the three children," Powers said, adding that Pierre had the final say on his children's funeral arrangements under state law.
Pierre, who works at a Dunkin' Donuts store, chose Gethsemane Cemetery in Congers, New York, in part because the owner donated the three plots. He invited the Armstrong family to consider changing their arrangements and bury the mother with the children, Powers said, although that did not come to pass. Armstrong's relatives are invited to next week's service.
Armstrong's family could not be reached on Thursday for comment.
Newsburgh police have ruled out any criminal wrongdoing on Pierre's part after looking into the dispute that took place on the evening of the drowning.
"As far as we can tell there was nothing more than a verbal disagreement," Police Lieutenant Bruce Campbell said in a telephone interview. "They were arguing about their relationship but we have no evidence of any physical abuse."
Earlier this year, Pierre was charged with criminal endangerment of a child when two-year-old Lance wandered out of the house on a cold night wearing little clothing after Pierre had left the child unattended, Campbell said.
A judge ordered that the charge would be dismissed within a year if there were no repeats of the incident and if Pierre did not otherwise "harass" his son.
In his statement, Pierre complained that he had been "inaccurately portrayed as being directly responsible for the tragedy."
He added: "If I could, I would have changed some things in my past. I loved Landen, Lance, Laianna, Lashanda and still love La'Shaun with all my heart, and am shocked and distraught by what happened."
(Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Greg McCune)
