Re: Alabama dad killed in front of daughter during gun sale: cops

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An Alabama father was killed in front of his 8-year-old daughter 
during a gun deal gone wrong, police and relatives said.

Ricky Howard Hamrick III took his young daughter on a road trip 
Sunday from Cleburne County to Bessemer, where he had arranged 
to sell two guns on Facebook Marketplace, police told AL.com.

But upon arriving for the transaction, Hamrick, 39, was fatally 
shot in the head, police said.

At least three bullets were fired into his sedan, where his 
daughter — who was not wounded — was sitting in the front 
passenger seat, cops said.

“Unfortunately, he sold guns to somebody that ended his life, 
somebody who we consider a coward, somebody who is going to 
shoot a person while they’re sitting in their car,” Lt. 
Christian Clemons said. “No provocation led to this shooting. 
We’re talking about lowdown, dirty rotten cowards.”

A woman who heard the shots rushed to the aid of Hamrick’s 
daughter until cops responded to the grisly crime scene, 
according to the report.

“It took everything in me not to break down in front of her,” 
said Kelli Brown. “I just could not fathom it. It was so 
surreal.”

Hamrick’s mother, Debbie Stringer, said his daughter was a bona 
fide “daddy’s girl” who was looking forward to ending their day 
together at Whataburger.

“On the way home after we left Birmingham, she said, ‘If them 
boys hadn’t done this we’d both be so happy. We’d be laughing 
and [on] our way to Whataburger,’” Stringer told AL.com. “She 
said, ‘We planned this wonderful day and they just ruined it.’”

Stringer said her granddaughter now has to “live with that” 
searing memory.

Back at the shooting scene, the girl didn’t want to leave her 
father’s side — even after he was shot in the head, Brown said.

“I heard a child screaming,” she recalled. “She got out of the 
car and came around and, bless her heart, she didn’t want to 
leave her daddy. She was trying her best to stay there with him.”

The girl opened the car door and leaned over her lifeless 
father, Brown said. Moments later, she ran over to Brown as she 
called for the girl.

“She was saying, ‘They shot my daddy, I don’t want my daddy to 
die,’” Brown continued. “I couldn’t do nothing but hold her.”

Brown said the girl was covered in blood. The good Samaritan 
asked cops not to tell the 8-year-old that Hamrick had died 
until other relatives arrived, but she already knew.

“She told us detail by detail what happened,” Brown said. “It 
was horrible. I could not believe they actually did that in 
front of that baby. Even killing him — it’s just senseless.”

The girl’s mother, meanwhile, was traveling from Texas to 
Alabama to pick her up and return to the Lone Star State early 
Tuesday, AL.com reported.

Hamrick, who had lost of one his legs in an earlier accident, 
had lived next door to his mother in Heflin and she considered 
him to be her best friend, Stringer said.

“He was just a gentle giant,” she told AL.com. “He had no malice 
in his heart whatsoever. He loved his family more than anything 
and his family loved him.”

Hamrick bought and sold miscellaneous items online to make a 
buck, according to his shattered mother, who believes her son 
was set up by the would-be gun buyers.

The pair of suspects ultimately stole the guns and fled the 
shooting scene outside a Salvation Army location, WBMA reported.

“It breaks your heart, it saddens you, because this girl can’t 
un-see what she has seen,” Major Robert Lyle of the Central 
Alabama Salvation Army told the station. “We live in a world 
that is just broken, and we want to offer hope and healing and 
that is found in Jesus Christ.”

No arrests had reportedly been made as of late Monday. Messages 
seeking comment from Bessemer police and Facebook were not 
immediately returned early Tuesday.

Comments:

Shannon Conway
5 hours ago

7% responsible for more than 50% of the murders, and 14x more 
likely to be involved in a violent felony. Lincoln was right and 
Congress should have listened.

Art Vandalay
4 hours ago

It's 13% but more like 80% of murders and 98% of their own kind.

https://nypost.com/2022/07/26/alabama-dad-killed-in-front-of-
daughter-during-gun-sale/