Florida police fatally shot man who burned 9-year-old boy he thought was demon possessed
Florida officers responded Tuesday to reports of a fire in which a child was being burned with his belongings because two adults believed he was possessed by a demon, officials said. The incident left a man dead and a woman facing murder charges.
In a release from Highlands County Sheriff Paul Blackman, officials said they received a call Tuesday afternoon reporting people burning a pile of debris on the side of the road in Sebring, a town in the middle of the state between Tampa and West Palm Beach.
When deputies arrived alongside fire officials, they found a man later identified as Richard Myron Ham, 39. According to the police, he resisted officers' orders, was tasered, struck an officer with a metal rod, and was fatally shot.
Ham's girlfriend, who is the boy's mother, also became physical with the officers and was detained on the scene, officials said. USA TODAY is not naming the woman in order to protect the identity of her child.
Initial investigations led police to believe that the couple had put a 9-year-old boy in the fire and covered him with a burning blanket, the release stated. The child escaped the fire and was not seriously injured.
The officer who was struck with the rod was treated at at the hospital that day and released. The shooting is being investigated by the 10th Judicial Circuit’s Officer Involved Deadly Incident Task Force. A spokesperson from Polk County Sheriff's Office confirmed one of their detectives is leading the investigation. The officers involved in the shooting have been placed on paid administrative leave in the meantime.
Highlands County Sheriff's Office spokesperson Scott Dressel told USA TODAY Thursday that body cameras were not used in the incident. He also said it is unlikely that dashboard cameras captured the incident as one officer, typically a school resource officer, did not have a dash camera.
Highlands County Fire Rescue did not immediately respond to USA TODAY's request for an incident report.
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The 30-year-old mother of the boy has been charged with murder while engaged in resisting an officer with violence, resisting an officer with violence, cruelty toward a child without great bodily harm and battery on an officer, according to her jail booking. She is being held in a Highlands County jail without bond. The public defender's office did not immediately respond to USA TODAY's emailed request for comment on her case.
According to the most recent update from Highlands County Sherriff's Office, prosecutors told a judge at her first appearance that they would seek a felony murder charge based on the allegations that her actions led to Ham's death. Dressel said she handed Ham the rod he struck the officer with, making her an "active participant."
The woman and the 9-year-old boy were listed as missing and endangered out of Wichita, Kansas on Dec. 6. The Wichita Police Department did not immediately respond to USA TODAY's request for details on the report.
Boy survived fire, hadn't eaten in 24 hours or bathed in 10 days
Police said the child escaped from the fire and is currently in custody of the Florida Department of Children and Families.
Dressel said the child was in a vehicle on the scene when the shooting occurred.
Officials said the boy told them he had not bathed or brushed his teeth during the ten days they traveled from Wichita to Florida. He also said he had not been fed for 24 hours.
He said the adults he was with had regularly used drugs, Ham had earlier threatened him with a knife, and Ham had claimed to kill someone else with the knife. Officials are working with other state agencies to confirm those allegations.