The 3-year-old boy and his three sisters, ages 7, 8, and 9, were at home in the family’s apartment last Saturday when Johnson decided to give the boy a bath.
A neighbor would later tell police he turned up the volume on his television to drown out screams and loud “thumping” noises from the apartment directly below his. The boy’s sisters also told a child-interview specialist they heard their brother’s screams and went to check on him, but Johnson closed and locked the bathroom door, according to charging papers.
It’s unclear who called 911, but the charges say the mother told officers her son was fine when she left but unconscious when she returned an hour later. The boy died at the scene.
That same day, a Black Diamond police sergeant who was aiding in the homicide investigation as a member of the Coalition of Small Cities Major Crimes Task Force met Jeffery Hamlet, the boy’s father. At the time, Hamlet was wearing a distinctive, ankle-length fur coat, the charges say.
After the death of his son, Hamlet began making threats about killing the boy’s mother, who told police Hamlet had previously fired a gun at her, according to the charges and Yourkoski. Police obtained a search warrant for Hamlet’s cellphone and developed probable cause to arrest him on investigation of felony harassment.
Hamlet — again wearing his fur coat
As the two Normandy Park officers began closing the distance, the charges say Hamlet pulled out a gun and began firing at them. The officers returned fire. Hamlet fired 12 shots, and the officers fired a combined 28 shots, the charges say. Hamlet suffered a glancing gunshot wound to the side of his head and left ear; the officers were uninjured.
Hamlet was able to scale a chain-link fence and ran back across First Avenue South, where he approached a couple who were inside their car in the drive-through lane of an Arby’s restaurant, the charges say. He ordered them out of the vehicle at gunpoint and got behind the wheel, but almost immediately high-centered the car, getting it stuck on some obstacle and immobilizing it, according to the charges.
Officers surrounded the vehicle, and Hamlet surrendered after a 45-minute standoff, according to charging papers. Police later found a 9 mm handgun and Hamlet’s fur coat inside the stolen car, the charges say.
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