Fugitive Focus Of Police Response In Shooting Of Disabled Man
Family Tries To Understand Tragedy
By Jeff Niese & Doug Thompson
The Morning News
Mary Hamley hugs family friend, Cynthia, who did not want her last name used, as well-wishers come by Thursday to console Hamley and her family at her home in Springdale. Hamley’s son, 21-year-old Erin Hamley, was fatally shot Tuesday by an Arkansas State trooper.
Michael Zamora, The Morning News
SPRINGDALE -- The call to dispatchers comes across just after 6:30 a.m.
"White male, walking on highway 412 towards Siloam Springs, wearing tan pants, red and black coat, and bald."
There's a followup:
"Tan or brown or hooded coat is what the subject they were chasing was wearing who is an escapee out of Michigan. Don't have any way of confirming this is the guy they were chasing."
Twenty-five minutes later, Washington County Sheriff's Deputy Jeremy Harrison pulls onto the shoulder of the eastbound lane of U.S. 412. State Police Trooper Larry Norman is already on the scene with the subject.
"State has unit on scene. Subject has left hand in pocket."
Three more deputies arrive in the next two to three minutes.
The man has his hands at his waist and is moving back and forth, according to Don Clark, who witnesses the event from his car.
Mary Hamley holds up a photo of her son, Erin Hamley, on Thursday outside her Springdale home. The usually camera-shy 21-year-old posed for the picture a few weeks ago, which family and friends believe was the last photo taken of Erin Hamley alive.
Michael Zamora, The Morning News
The next few minutes will become the focus of an ongoing investigation.
The officers surround the subject, whom state police say does not comply with orders to show both his hands and get on the ground.
Norman fires a shotgun blast, hitting the subject in the gut, according to a news release.
"Shots fired. Call a code 10," Harrison tells dispatchers at 7 a.m., asking for an ambulance.
Officers put on surgical gloves to render first aid, Clark sees.
A Springdale ambulance is dispatched at 7:03 a.m. It pulls into Northwest Medical Center-Springdale 29 minutes later at 7:32 a.m. The subject is pronounced dead at 8:56 a.m. by hospital doctors in the operating room.
The identity of the subject is revealed later in the day to be Joseph Erin Hamley, 21 of Springdale, a severely handicapped man. He is not Adam Leadford, 18, the prison escapee who is caught later in the day.
Authorities on Thursday promised a timely and thorough investigation into the shooting of Hamley, although they did not say how long that would take.
"You have to understand that the questions you want to ask are the questions we're asking troopers today," said Bill Sadler, state police spokesman.
Col. Steve Dozier, state police commander, will make a statement on the shooting, but no timetable has been set when that statement will be made, Sadler said.
Both Gov. Mike Huckabee and Rep. Doug Matayo, R-Springdale, who represents Hamley's family, said Thursday they believe the family will receive all details. They both said they believed it was OK to let the State Police investigate one of their own.
"The State Police are going to have to do a full investigation," Matayo said. "I'll see that it's done."
Matayo said if proper procedure was followed, this would be grounds for review and possible change of that procedure.
Huckabee released a statement saying a "thorough investigation is under way. This is a genuine tragedy for this young man, his family and our state. Words can't possibly adequately comfort the family in such a situation. The family will be fully informed as to the results of the investigation."
Sen. Jim Holt, R-Springdale, is state senator for the area.
"Our prayers are with the family, and with those who protect us. I'm sure the police officer is aggrieved as well," Holt said Thursday.
Norman has been relieved of duty pending the completion of the investigation, in accordance with State Police policy in incidents in which deadly force is used. Robin Green, Benton County prosecutor, said she would review the investigation upon its completion for possible criminal charges stemming from the shooting.
Incident reports from the deputies have been turned over to the State Police, and Hamley's body underwent an autopsy at the State Crime Lab on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, family and friends of Hamley continue to question how someone with cerebral palsy who seldom approached people he did not know could be mistaken for a wanted fugitive.
"This is what they would have seen besides a shaved head," said Mary Hamley, Erin's mother, holding up a photo taken of her son a few weeks before he was killed.
Erin has long hair in the photo and a beard, which he typically let grow throughout the winter. Erin asked his mother to shave his head Sunday so that he would look like his brother, Bud, who is serving in the military.
Hamley is also wearing a red University of Arkansas jacket in the photo, the same jacket he was wearing when he was shot Tuesday.
"They should have given him a chance, and they didn't," said Holly Yeager, a friend of Hamley's.
Hamley never learned to read and could barely communicate, according to family members. He was last seen by his mother about 10 p.m. Monday. They do not know how he ended up along the side of the road about five miles west of Tontitown.
Friends delivered food and shared their favorite stories of Erin with Mary Hamley on Thursday at her Springdale home off Cleveland Street near the center of town.
"You were a good mother," said one friend who didn't want to give her name.
Mary Hamley said she is waiting permission before taking white roses to where her son was shot Tuesday. Another son had gone to Wal-Mart to develop old rolls of film the family gathered up in hopes of finding more images of Erin.
"All his life he was a living ministry for doing what was right," she said.
Funeral arrangements are still pending.
http://www.nwaonline.net/articles/20...01azhamley.txt
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Kelli
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