‘They shot my daddy.’ Girl sees dad shot in head during gun sale in Alabama, cops say
Kelli Brown was at her home in Alabama when she heard gunshots. Once she rushed outside, she saw something she could only describe as “horrible,” she told AL.com.
An 8-year-old girl was leaning over her father in a car down the road, covered in blood, she told the outlet.
“She was saying, ‘They shot my daddy, I don’t want my daddy to die,’” Brown recalled to AL.com. “I couldn’t do nothing but hold her.’’
The shooting occurred just before 4:30 p.m. July 24 in Bessemer, according to the Trussville Tribune, and police are investigating it as a homicide.
The girl and her father, 39-year-old Ricky Howard Hamrick II, were meeting with two people for a gun sale they arranged online when Hamrick was shot in the head and had his guns stolen by the “buyers,” police told WBMA.
“You could see he had been shot in his left temple,’’ Brown told AL.com. “I heard a child screaming. 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.”
Hamrick was born in Georgia and lived in Heflin, Alabama, according to his obituary. He used to work in the construction industry. His funeral will be held in Bremen, Georgia.
Police have not publicly announced any suspects or arrests in the case as of July 27.
McClatchy News reached out to the Bessemer Police Department for comment on July 27 and was awaiting a response.
Anyone with information is asked to call investigators at 205-425-2411, WBMA reported.
“We’d like to talk to you,” Bessemer Police Department Lt. Christian Clemons told WBMA. “Turn yourself in. I’m sure you have a story, as well, but if you don’t, several hundred officers are going to come looking for you.”
Bessemer is about 15 miles southwest of Birmingham.
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