Mom asks why son killed
Posted on Thursday, March 9, 2006
Joseph Erin Hamley’s mother thinks her son would have forgiven the trooper who fatally shot him Tuesday morning. That won’t come so easily for her.
Mary Hamley stood on her family’s front porch late Wednesday, wondering why police didn’t see that her son was mentally handicapped when they approached him as he walked along a highway.
Police in Northwest Arkansas had been searching since Sunday for Adam Lee Leadford, who escaped Friday from a Michigan prison boot camp, and Erin Hamley fit the fugitive’s description.
Tuesday morning, Arkansas State Police trooper Larry Norman shot a man thought to be Leadford along U. S. 412, west of Tontitown.
State police issued a news release Tuesday saying the man was shot after repeatedly refusing to show both his hands to Norman and four other officers who approached with guns drawn.
The release said Norman fired once with a shotgun. The man, later identified as Hamley, was pronounced dead at Northwest Medical Center of Washington County in Springdale about 9 a. m. He was 21 years old.
Benton County sheriff’s deputies spotted Leadford about 5 p. m. Tuesday in Avoca in a stolen minivan.
An hour later, a Springdale officer shot Leadford behind the Wal-Mart Supercenter at 2004 S. Pleasant St. after a high-speed chase from Benton County.
State police spokesman Bill Sadler on Wednesday issued a news release saying that agency determined at 11 p. m. Tuesday that the man Norman shot and killed wasn’t Leadford.
Sadler wouldn’t say if Hamley was armed.
Instead, he issued a news release identifying Hamley and stating that an autopsy was under way and that an administrative review of the shooting was ongoing.
Norman, a six-year veteran, is on paid leave.
Norman was an officer with the Fayetteville Police Department from 1988 until 1999, when he left to join the state police.
Fayetteville police Sgt. Shannon Gabbard said Norman didn’t use lethal force in his 11 years at the department and left in good standing.
“He did a great job as an officer for us,” Gabbard said.
Mary Hamley reported her son missing to Springdale police at 9 p. m. Tuesday, at which time he was already dead. She said Erin Hamley was mentally retarded, had cerebral palsy and “multi-personalities,” a police report stated.
She said he left home Monday night wearing his red Arkansas Razorback jacket and tennis shoes.
Mary Hamley feared for his safety, she told police.
She worried Wednesday that her son’s nervous habit of putting his hands in his pockets may have played a role in his death.
“I think somebody offered him a ride home and they dropped him off out there for meanness because he’s handicapped,” Hamley said. “I’ve got to win his last battle and find out how he got there and who did it.
“ He never would have come at them, but every time he got upset, his hands would go in his pockets,” Hamley said.
Only two days before he died, Mary Hamley cut off her son’s long, brown hair and long beard, making him look somewhat like the Michigan prison escapee that police thought he was when they confronted him Tuesday morning.
Her son, who was thrilled to celebrate his 21 st birthday Feb. 3, went by the name Erin, and disliked his first name of Joseph. He loved wrestling and drawing, enjoyed music and attended functions at the First United Methodist Church even though his family was Seventhday Adventists. He took good care of his dog, Lucky, a combination dachshund and terrier.
On Saturdays, the Sabbath for Seventh-day Adventists, the family placed a sign on their front door asking not to be bothered by visitors because it was church day.
“My son could crack you up,” said his mother, who has five other children. “He was an amazing person. He was a wonderful human being, but he was challenged. You knew Erin was not a normal person.”
Hamley said she last saw her son alive around 9: 30 p. m. Monday when he set out for a neighborhood convenience store. She’s figured out that he left there around 10 p. m. when the store closed, but she knows nothing of what he did between then and his death.
John Farmer, a cashier at Shiloh General Store in Springdale, remembered Hamley as a regular at the store.
Monday night, Hamley didn’t buy anything. He sat in a booth in the store until it closed at 10. It was part of his routine, Farmer said.
“Well, the story about him: He’s kind of slow,” Farmer said. “Basically, he comes in two or three times a day.”
Sometimes Hamley would buy a snack if he had money, other times not. He usually sat in the store’s restaurant area, talking to himself, and other times he would walk around the store looking at merchandise, Farmer said.
Hamley, whom Farmer described as an acquaintance and customer, often walked around town, Farmer said. Sometimes he’d walk directly from the store to the Taco Bell on U. S. 71 Business.
“I used to work at Taco Bell, and he used to do the same thing there — buy something, walk around the store and talk to himself,” Farmer said.
His mother knew her son was a regular at Taco Bell. He went there about every night. He’d return home between 1 a. m. and 2 a. m., ring the doorbell and his mother would let him in.
“Taco Bell was his little bit of freedom,” his mother said. “I couldn’t have stopped him from going out so late at 21. He had my stubbornness.”
The doorbell, however, never rang as it should have early Tuesday.
“I felt something wrong,” Mary Hamley said. “I was up all night.”
Just as quick as she started to talk about her son, his five brothers and sisters and the church, Hamley stopped answering questions. She shooed reporters away and mentioned that talking too much about her son could “hurt things.” She didn’t elaborate.
“It’s time to go,” she said. “I’m done.”
Jerry Mayes, pastor at Seventh-day Adventist Church in Springdale, said Mary Hamley is seeking legal advice to review the actions of police.
Neighbors knew Hamley by his description, but he rarely talked to them. The neighbors often saw him on the swings early in the morning at Grove Street Park, wearing his bright-red windbreaker and his long hair moving wildly as he swang.
Sometimes, Hamley went to the Jones Center for Families, where he’d sit and watch neighbor Shellie Howard’s daughters ice skate.
“It’s so sad,” said Howard, who has lived across the street from the family for six years.
Hamley was in special education classes during his time at Springdale High School and one of six children.
Mayes prayed with the Hamley family Wednesday at their home.
“They’re all devastated,” he said. “And rightly so. I don’t see justification in shooting the boy. He wasn’t a violent person. He may not have responded to the police exactly how they wanted, but he was slow. Anyone could tell that.”
Charles Farmer, owner of Sisco Funeral Chapel in Springdale, said Hamley’s funeral arrangements are pending. Information for this article was contributed by Tracie Dungan of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
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