Mother of pregnant woman killed and accused shooter speaks

MAPLE HEIGHTS, Ohio (WOIO/Gray News) - A married couple and their unborn baby were shot to death in the middle of a park on Labor Day.

According to Maple Heights police, the person who pulled the trigger was that woman’s younger brother.

The mother of both the shooting victim and the shooter, Cynthia Ivey, said Trea Carter, 31, and his wife 30-year-old Mercedes Iverson were getting ready to welcome a baby girl in November.

Iverson’s mother Cynthia Ivey said they had already picked out a name, Ava.

“They were very excited,” said Ivey. “Trea was more excited than Mercedes because Mercedes was the one that was sick.”

She said her daughter and son-in-law were very ambitious, both often working two or three jobs.

Her daughter was a licensed cosmetologist and worked in customer service. Carter worked at the post office and hosted a podcast.

“They always seemed to be good together,” Ivey said. “He was very protective of her so when he asked me if he could marry her, I said, ‘Well you’ve been dating her long enough ,you know how she is. If you can deal with it, have at it!’”

Ivey said she was at a church picnic at Stafford Park in Maple Heights on Labor Day, and the only reason the Parma couple was there was to do her a favor, to drop off her great-grandson’s stroller.

“Then out of the blue you know my son shows up, and as soon as he sees them, he just goes off. So I don’t know what he was doing before that got him so enraged, but he just wouldn’t let up,” Ivey recalled. “So, we’re like, ‘This is a church function. Let’s just leave.’ And so they were leaving. They were in the car when he started shooting.”

She said her son and daughter had been arguing since the beginning of summer.

“Well, that’s a very long story in itself, but the bottom line is he was holding a grudge, OK, and so he just wouldn’t let it go,” Ivey said. “It just festered, and I guess that was the end result.”

Never in a million years could Ivey have imagined that her 29-year-old son, Jason Iverson, would shoot and kill his own pregnant sister and her husband in cold blood.

“Nobody can believe that he actually did what he did because nobody would’ve expected that from him. And him and his sister (have) always been close. You know, he’s always been able to call her, and she would bail him out of whatever it was that he had a problem with,” Ivey said.

She said she believes her son snapped.

“I think so. you know there were a couple of setbacks that he was dealing with in his life, but I guess he just couldn’t handle it,” said Ivey. “Everything just came to a head, and to my knowledge, he was supposed to be seeking help. But being a parent it’s kind of hard when you have grown children that have issues because there’s only so much you can do.”

She said it’s hard to accept that her daughter’s killer and her son are the same person.

“It’s very hard for me to come to terms with that because they’re both my kids,” the mother said.

Ivey said she has not spoken to her son since the tragedy, and she’s not sure when she will be able to forgive him, but she isn’t there yet.

Iverson is set to be arraigned on murder and attempted murder charges Wednesday.

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