11:38 PM EST on Saturday, March 26, 2005

13 News

A Virginia Beach family is dealing with the Good Friday murder of a husband and father.

Thomas Laurendeau, 58, was killed yesterday when a man entered the Wachovia Bank in the College Square Park shopping center and shot Laurendeau multiple times. Laurendeau was an employee at the bank.

"He stayed late at the bank a lot because he was the only guy there, and he worried about those girls being there alone," said Martha Laurendeau, his widow.

Police have released surveillance pictures in hopes that they will help identify the suspect, who shot Laurendeau as he sat in his office.

Martha Laurendeau said she feels sorrow for the loss of her husband rather than anger at her husband's killer.

"Regardless of whether or not they catch him or whether or not he goes to trial, there's a higher power that he has to answer to," she said. "B esides the court system and the judges, he's got to answer to God, and that's out of my hands."

Friends and family are invited to pay respects to Tom Laurendeau from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at Smith & Williams' Kempsville Chapel. Funeral services are set for 1 p.m. Tuesday at Rock Church.