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The Birmingham News
2 Fayette officers, dispatcher killed
Police: Shootings happened at station; 18-year-old jailed
06/08/03
By TOM GORDON and VAL WALTON
News staff writers
FAYETTE An 18-year-old man faces capital murder charges after two officers and a dispatcher were gunned down Saturday morning.
Devan Darnel Moore, who graduated from high school about two weeks ago, was "troubled," his father said.
Moore was found about 9 a.m. Saturday in a Lowndes County, Miss., pasture in a police cruiser that had been taken from Fayette. County Sheriff Butch Howard said authorities there had been on the lookout for Moore, who tried to leave the pasture, was blocked by officers and was arrested without incident.
Moore later waived extradition and was taken from Mississippi to the Tuscaloosa County Jail.
More than three hours earlier, Officer Arnold Strickland, Cpl. James Crump and Dispatcher Ace Mealer were shot and killed while Moore was being booked inside the Fayette Police Department on a charge of receiving stolen property.
The circumstances of the killings were unclear Saturday night, but they were unprecedented in the history of Fayette. It has been years since so many state law enforcement employees have been killed at one time.
"It sure doesn't add up," Fayette County District Attorney Chris McCool said as he stood in the taped-off police department parking lot Saturday afternoon talking with reporters. "Details are still sketchy."
McCool said Moore would be arraigned on capital murder charges this week.
In Fayette, Moore's father was struggling with the news that his son stands accused in the shootings.
"I did the best I could with him," Kenneth Moore said by telephone from his Fayette home. "I know the officers. We stay here together. What can I say to the families? The only thing I can say is I'm sorry. That still won't bring them back."
Kenneth Moore, 48, said his son had had run-ins with authorities in the past and had once stolen his mother's car.
He said he had tried his best to instill discipline in him, but his son would not abide by his rules. He said he raised his son, who also had been in foster care, from the first grade until the 10th grade.
Moore said his son moved to Jasper about two years ago to live with his mother, Gloria Thompson. He had just graduated from an alternative school in Walker County and had planned to go into the Air Force.
`Remember':
The three shooting victims, Crump, Strickland and Hamilton, were well known and well regarded in and around Fayette, a northwest Alabama town of 5,200. Within hours of their deaths, black ribbons appeared on the front grills of Fayette police cruisers.
Less than a block from the police department, a flower shop put the following message in blue letters on a marquee sign: "Remember our fallen officers and their families."
Fayette Police Chief Euel Hall said that Crump and Strickland had been part of his 14-member force for a few years. Together they had 32 years of law enforcement experience.
Friends and co-workers said Crump, who was around 40, had a young son and a fiancee. Hall said Strickland, who was in his 50s, had three children and at least one grandchild.
Mealer, a bachelor who was around 40, had been dispatching at the police department for a few years and had spent many more dispatching at the Fayette County Sheriff's Department. In recent years, he had made a successful effort to reduce his weight, which had once been well over 300 pounds.
"They loved their jobs," Hall said. "That's what they were doing."
Hugs and tears:
As investigators went in and out of the crime scene, groups of people stood in the shade of buildings across the street to watch and talk. Late in the morning, a group of about 75 men came up, stood in a spot adjacent to the police parking lot, formed a circle and prayed.
About an hour later, a woman arrived with three friends, met another friend in the street across from the police parking lot, hugged her, held her and sobbed loudly. Later, at the yellow tape, she did the same thing with Fayette police officer D.A. Allen.
She was Shani Lake, a correctional officer at the Hamilton Work Release Center. She also was James Crump's fiancee.
"He knew it (death on the job) was possible and she knew it was possible," said one of Lake's friends, Gina Rodgers. "But not now. There's no reason for it."
Across the street in the shade, Barbara Burton, who had embraced Lake when she first arrived, stood in a group that included her daughter, Manda Hudson.
"If he comes here," Hudson said of the accused killer, "somebody's going to get him."
"Hitting the police, that hits home, you know?" Burton said.
Such sentiment explains why authorities are housing Moore in Tuscaloosa County. When someone is charged with killing a police officer in a town, it's customary to jail him elsewhere, McCool said.
Asked if anything might have gone awry while Moore was being booked, McCool said, "I don't see any place where procedure was not followed."
While he would not say if Crump, Strickland and Mealer were shot with a police handgun, McCool said, "That certainly is a possibility."
Moore's father said he sought help from the courts and the church for his son, who has five siblings. One of them, Michael, plays for the Frankfurt Galaxy in NFL Europe.
"Preachers prayed for (Devan)," Kenneth Moore said. "I've been praying and praying and praying. God is in control.
"I still love him. He's still my son. He's woke up and smelled the coffee. It's too late now. What can a daddy do?"