LA CRESCENT — Eight black hearses lined up side by side outside a church in a small southeastern Minnesota community Thursday, each set to carry one member of a slain Houston, Texas, family to their final resting place.

The funeral for Valerie and Dwayne Jackson and their six children, ages 6 to 13, at La Crescent United Methodist Church and their burial at Prince of Peace Cemetery west of town were closed to the media. About 30 members of the Wisconsin and Minnesota chapters of Bikers Against Child Abuse stood guard at the edge of the church property, the La Crosse Tribune reported. They also formed a human wall at the cemetery to shield the burial.

The mother’s ex-boyfriend, David Conley, is charged with capital murder in the Aug. 8 shootings.