“It’s senseless.”: Friend remembers couple, unborn child killed in N. Fargo

FARGO, N.D. (Valley News Live) - Friends and family are reeling tonight after a couple and their unborn daughter were gunned down at work yesterday afternoon in north Fargo.

“I want to know why, why that was the go-to? Taking three lives over nothing,” Kayla Lancor, a good friend of the victims said.

Police say it was just after 2 p.m. when 35-year-old Anthony Reese opened fire on Richard ‘Richie’ Pittman, 43, and April Carbone, 32, as revenge after being let go from his job. Reese has since been charged with three counts of murder and faces the rest of his life in prison.

Lancor has been friends with April Carbone for almost three years, as she moved Carbone and Pittman from Connecticut to North Dakota in the summer of 2019 to help them get on the right track and stay sober.

“I didn’t move them out here for this. It was supposed to be for a better life and a part of me is sorry that it wasn’t,” Lancor said.

Known as ‘Auntie’ to Lancor’s three daughters, she says she and Carbone clicked immediately and their friendship was unlike any she’s had before.

“She’s probably been my rock for the last three years and vice versa. She was always there,” Lancor smiled.

Lancor says she and her family spent all of Sunday with the Carbone and Pittman, where many conversations about the couple’s soon-to-be baby Layla Rose were had. Carbone was due to give birth to Layla just days after Christmas.

“They would have been amazing parents. They never gave up on each other. They always managed to overcome whatever was thrown at them,” Lancor said.

Co-workers say Pittman was helping Reese fix a machine Wednesday when Reese started cussing at Pittman and causing a scene. Witnesses say Reese was fired and escorted out, but gunshots rang out moments later after documents say Reese grabbed a firearm from his car.

“Anthony (Reese) had said he wanted to make Richie suffer, so he shot his unborn baby. I just don’t understand taking innocent lives over nothing,” Lancor said.

While heartbroken, Lancor says she doesn’t want the community to only remember the senseless violence that took her best friends and baby Layla from the world; Rather the fun and constantly-laughing couple Carbone and Pittman were, and the new family they were supposed to be.

“They were such great people. I wish everyone would have been able to know them,” she said.

A GoFundMe for April and baby Layla can be found here.

Reese is expected to be seen in court again next month.

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