Re: RONNIE HAMMOND of A. R. S. shot by Macon Police !!!

[randybe...@gmail.com]

On Friday, January 1, 1999 at 3:00:00 AM UTC-5, K. G. wrote:
> By Joe Kovac Jr.
> The Macon Telegraph 12/30/98
>
> Ronnie Hammond, lead singer for the Atlanta Rhythm Section,
> was in guarded but stable condition Tuesday, a day after a Macon
> policeman shot him in the stomach when he threatened the officer with
> part of an old guitar and a claw hammer, authorities said.
>
> Hammond ran at the officer after warning, "You all gonna have to kill
> me. If you try to stop me, you better be prepared to die," police said.
> The confrontation happened at about 8 p.m. Monday on the front porch
> of a south Macon house that Hammond rents.
>
> Police and fire-rescue workers were sent there after
> someone called to report that Hammond was suicidal.
> On arrival, authorities noticed Hammond, 48, was
> bleeding from a severe cut on his wrist.
>
> "It happened very fast. The officer got there, he tried to
> talk to the guy, and the guy came out ... he lunged,"
> said Macon police spokeswoman Sgt. Sabrina Friday.
>
> With a hammer in one hand and the neck of a guitar
> in the other, Hammond "advanced" toward the officer,
> who told him to put down the weapons, police said. The officer first
> thought the guitar piece was an ax.
>
> "He disregarded the officer's command and instantaneously lunged at
> the officer with both weapons raised over his head," a police report
> states.
>
> Sgt. Neal Smith, a 20-year veteran, shot Hammond in the stomach
> with his department-issued .40-caliber Glock handgun.
>
> Monday night's incident was the second time this month police have
> gone to Hammond's residence at 3978 Mathis St., three blocks north of
> Rocky Creek Road between Houston Avenue and Interstate 75.
>
> On Dec. 19, Hammond was there threatening to commit suicide, police
> said. According to neighbors, he moved in just before Thanksgiving and
> was friendly. "He told me if I needed anything to just let him know,"
> said Mattie Durham, his next-door neighbor, who took him cookies the
> day before Christmas.
>
> Hammond's brother Steve said Tuesday that his family had been
> worried about the singer since a recent relationship "didn't work out."
>
> "The family had been very concerned due to the depression he was
> undergoing that something could happen to him," Steve Hammond
> said. The brother said it was a friend of his brother's who, on
> Monday night, called for help because of the "serious nature" of
> the musician's depression.
>
> Steve Hammond said his brother kept the guitar neck for protection.
> He said family members "are not convinced the appropriate measures
> were taken" to take the singer into custody.
>
> As is routine in police-involved shootings, Sgt. Smith is on
> administrative leave while the case is reviewed. Although Smith is a
> seasoned cop, police spokeswoman Friday said, "No officer wants to be
> responsible for taking a life."
>
> Steve Hammond said his brother's condition was guarded, but stable,
> and that he had been talking to family members at The Medical Center
> of Central Georgia. The bullet that hit him went into his midsection
> and exited near his hip.
>
> Word of the shooting spread quickly among members of Macon's music
> community.
>
> "I really don't know what to say," said Skip Slaughter, an engineer at
> Phoenix Sound Recording on Broadway. "If you look at the guy, he was
> a beautiful soul. It's such a shame."
>
> "It's a sad thing - heartbreaking for us," said Mike Ventimigelia,
> singer and guitarist for Big Mike and the Booty Papas.
>
> Ventimigelia's band was born a few years ago out of informal Sunday
> night jam sessions with Hammond at the Back Porch Lounge, a small
> blues club Hammond's former wife, Jane, operated at the Howard
> Johnson's motel on Riverside Drive. Jane Hammond now runs the
> Riverfront Bluez club. She did not return telephone calls from The
> Macon Telegraph on Tuesday.
>
> Hammond was born in Macon in 1950 and, in 1970, moved to Atlanta,
> where he eventually hooked up with producer and manager Buddy
> Buie.
>
> In 1973, Atlanta Rhythm Section released its first album, "Back Up
> Against the Wall," and within a few years gained national prominence
> with a series of hit singles, including "So Into You," "Imaginary Lover"
> and "Spooky."
>
> By the end of the 1970s, Hammond had moved back to Macon. He left
> ARS in 1981 to spend time with his son Jesse, who was 1 at the time,
> and his then-wife, Judy. He re-joined the band in 1987.
>
> Atlanta Rhythm Section was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of
> Fame in 1996 and still performs several dozen shows a year.
>
> According to the band's Web site, ARS's next scheduled appearance was
> to be a New Year's Eve show in Alexandria, Va.
>
> Staff writer Jim Murphy contributed to this report.