Lawrence County Prosecutor Samuel C. Arp II says he’s determined that Bedford Police officers were justified in a deadly shooting in September.
The prosecutor issued a statement saying police shot 47-year-old Daymond Hubbard when he accelerated toward an officer with his car. Toxicology results showed Hubbard had a blood alcohol level of .097 and had amphetamine in his system at the time of his death.
Hubbard’s mother and brother visited the Bedford Police department earlier that day, saying that Daymond had intruded in the mother’s home and threatened to kill her if she went to the police. She also told officers her 84-year-old husband was at home and needed to be removed to safety.
Police accompanied her and Hubbard’s brother to her house, where they found Hubbard driving through the back yard. Hubbard refused to leave his SUV and became “verbally combative” toward police, according to the statement. After a chase, police managed to box in Hubbard’s car. That’s when police say he reversed, hit a police car and drove toward an officer. Three police officers shot at Hubbard, wounding him. He died in a Bedford hospital later that night.
Members of Hubbard's own family disagree with the prosecutor's conclusion. One posted on Facebook that the deceased was experiencing mental illness when he was “executed by the police instead of offering to help.”
“This is why people in a crisis don’t get help,” she continued in her post. “For fear of what could happen if the police get involved!”
His sister shared in another post one month after Daymon's death that she prays the three officers involved “will never again get to wear a badge or carry a gun.”
Reached by phone, the mother said she wasn't surprised by the findings and declined further comment.
Hubbard is survived by his three children.
