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Three children drowned by mother buried apart from her

Tense funeral marked by shouting between the two sides of the family

Tiny white caskets of three children who drowned with their mother when she intentionally drove into the Hudson River were buried on Monday several miles away from her grave.

After a tense funeral marked by shouting between the two sides of the family, a hearse followed the father's orders and drove to the children's burial plot at Gethsemane Cemetery in Congers, New York. It was six miles from where their mother, Lashondra Armstrong, 25, was buried in New Hempstead, New York.

Armstrong, 25, killed herself along with her sons Landen, 5, and Lance, 2, and daughter Laianna, 11 months, on April 12 after an argument with their father, Jean Pierre, said police in Newburgh, a city about 25 miles north of New York City.

Her eldest son, La'Shaun, 10, who has a different father, was in the minivan but saved himself by climbing through a window as the vehicle disappeared beneath the waters.

The Armstrong family had arranged for the mother to be interred with her children, but Pierre intervened and arranged for a separate plot in another town.

His lawyer, Stephen Powers, said, "He thought it was inappropriate in light of the fact that the mother murdered the three children."

Tensions mounted on Monday as family members filed past police officers standing guard outside the funeral home where the ceremony took place.

An Armstrong family member, Gwendolen Green, said the mother's relatives were largely banned from the ceremony and guests were checked against a list before being allowed entry.

At one point, yelling could be heard coming from inside the funeral home and soon afterward Green, the mother's second cousin, was escorted from the building.

"You could cut the tension with a knife," Green said, adding that she had been asked to leave the ceremony after an argument.

Green said she had attended the funeral despite not being on the guest list.

"You're not gonna keep me from going in and seeing my family," she said. "I saw the children, and they were beautiful."

Green said the surviving son had not attended the funeral because it was "too much." She said the two dead boys were dressed in dark suits and the baby girl was wearing a white dress.

Soon after Green was escorted out, three little caskets accompanied by small bouquets of blue and white flowers, were loaded into a white hearse headed for Congers.

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