Kevin Ward

A man shot and killed on Christmas Eve was protecting his pregnant fiancee from his irate father, charging documents and family say. Kevin Ward and his fiancee were visiting his dad, Harold Luster, on Christmas Eve in the 6400 block of Highway PP of the High Ridge area when police say Luster shot his son once in the head. Charging documents and Ward's mother, Kathy Ward, say Luster was riled up after arguing with another family member earlier that day and was also upset because he thought Kathy Ward was cheating on him -- and that his son's fiancee was helping to cover up the infidelity. Kathy Ward said Luster called her just before the shooting. He lives with another woman, she said. "He told me, 'I'm gonna shoot her in the head,' meaning Kevin's fiancee," Kathy Ward said. "I said, 'Why are you going to do that? She hasn't done nothing.' In his mind he thought she was lying about something to him, and she wasn't." Before he hung up on that first call, Kathy Ward said Luster started hitting her 26-year-old son's truck and she heard Kevin Ward say, "Dad, what did I do to deserve that?" "And those are the last words I heard from my son," Kathy Ward said. "Next thing you know, I get a phone call ... saying 'I shot him, I shot him in the head.'" Charging documents say officers were called to the home just before 9 p.m. and found Ward's body in the 6400 block of Highway PP in High Ridge. "Kevin was loved by many," Kathy Ward said. "His family is grieving -- his brothers, his aunts, his uncles, his half sisters, even teachers who knew him in high school. Everybody is missing Kevin dearly." Luster, 61, faces first-degree murder and armed criminal action charges. He was arrested and is being held without bond.