A Bitter Farewell for Man Killed by Deputies

Clara Maxie said a heart-wrenching goodby to her eldest son Wednesday, eight days after the mentally ill man was fatally shot Aug. 13 by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies outside her Ladera Heights home.

More than 100 friends and relatives turned out at Greater New Bethel Baptist Church to pay their final respects to 33-year-old Keith Hamilton and offer solace to grieving family members. Some relatives who attended the hourlong funeral service expressed bitterness over the killing.

“I want justice for all. For my son and for other sons,” said Lee M. Maxie, Hamilton’s stepfather. “I want some good to come from all of this and I won’t let it rest, if I have to go all the way to the top.”

Hamilton, a former mental patient, was killed in his mother’s back yard after she had summoned sheriff’s deputies to the residence because he would not leave. A few months earlier, Maxie had obtained a temporary restraining order requiring her son to remain at least 100 yards away from her, her daughter and her home, because his erratic behavior frightened her, according to court records.

The officers who shot Hamilton said they drew their guns because he was reaching for a knife. However, Maxie and several eyewitnesses have disputed that account and called for a Christopher Commission-style investigation of the incident.

At Hamilton’s funeral, a lawyer for the family echoed earlier charges that deputies Kelly Enos and Paul McCready were negligent in Hamilton’s shooting. Both deputies have been relieved of duty with pay pending the outcome of a Sheriff’s Department investigation.

“The more we investigate, the more we discover that those two officers shouldn’t have been on that street,” said Geraldine D. Green, a Los Angeles attorney representing the family. “We’re still investigating and gathering evidence, and after Keith is laid to rest, the family is going to make a decision in the next couple of weeks about what to do,” she said.

Meanwhile, during a rousing eulogy, the Rev. Earl A. Pleasant told those gathered at the funeral service to find their comfort in God.

“This thing that came into our lives this past week, it broke some of your hearts,” said Pleasant. “But our lives are not in the hands of police officers. Our lives are in the hands of God.”