By Michelle Hunter
The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate
NEW ORLEANS — A man gunned down on a New Orleans street early Sunday has been identified as a father of three and a Jefferson Parish sheriff’s deputy who was assigned to work at the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center in Gretna, authorities and relatives said.
New Orleans Police Department officers found Ashley “Ash” Aples, 43, lying in 5600 block of Morrison Road. The officers had responded after receiving a report of a shooting around 2:40 a.m.
No other details were available Tuesday, including a suspected motive for the killing.
Aples had been with the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office as a corrections officer for almost two years, according to Capt. Jason Rivarde, a Sheriff’s Office spokesperson. He was not on duty at the time of his death.
“I’m just heartbroken,” Aples’ mother, Valerie Eddington, 76, said Tuesday. “I lost my husband 13 years ago, and I thought that would be the hardest thing I would have to do until I lost my child.”
Aples was the youngest of Eddington’s three children. Born and raised in New Orleans East, he was an energetic child who was gregarious and athletic, she said.
He developed a love of music after receiving a keyboard as a present, according to Eddington. While attending Sarah T. Reed High School in New Orleans, Aples was a member of the band’s drum section and played the cymbals, she said.
Aples was displaced by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and moved to Houston Texas, Eddington said. He had three children, sons Zion and Zakai, and a daughter, Za’rhya.
But Aples’ world shattered in 2017 when Za’rhya died of a rare and aggressive cancer, according to Eddington.
“His little girl died in his arms,” Eddington said.
She recalled a car ride during which Za’rhya became inconsolable on the back seat, crying and reaching for Aples. He immediately pulled over on the side of the road, climbed into the back seat and began talking to her. It was mostly toddler-gibberish to Eddington.
“He understood her. Her big bow on her head had fallen off and was lodged in the seat,” she said. “He reached down and put it back on her head, and she stopped crying. It was just so touching to see how patient he was with her.”
Aples was also close with his sons, Eddington said. His fun-loving nature earned him the title of favorite uncle with others in the extended family, according to his mother.
“That’s what all his nieces and nephews would say. I call him the ‘children whisperer,’” Eddington said. “All my grandchildren and great-grandchildren are heartbroken. They are simply heartbroken.”
Aples cited his oldest son as his inspiration when, in November, he represented the Sheriff’s Office in the Battle of the Badges, a friendly amateur boxing bout that pits local law enforcement against firefighters who spar for charity.
“He won,” said Eddington, who’d been worried sick about him being matched against opponent who was in his 20s.
Aples’ had a huge family spread across the country who are expected to travel to the New Orleans area next week for his funeral services.
“This is just unbelievable that something like this would happen,” Eddington said. “He was just such a good guy. He was always helping somebody.”
A funeral for Ashley Aples will be held July 5 at New Orleans Funeral and Cremation Service, 9200 Interstate 10 Service Road, New Orleans. The viewing will be held at 10 a.m. Funeral services start at 11 a.m.
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