A 30-year-old woman and her 9-year-old son were reported missing and endangered from Wichita back on December 6th. According to the Highlands County Sheriff's Office; Lakenya Phillips, her son, and 39-year-old Richard Myron Ham were found in Seabring, Florida.
Sheriff's Deputies were dispatched to a location where they discovered Ham and Phillips burning the 9-year-old's things because, "the child was possessed by a demon." Witnesses told officers Ham at one point put the child in the fire, covered in a blanket that was also on fire. The child escaped without serious injury.
The deputies found Ham with two metal bars and deployed a taser after he wouldn't comply. Officers say Ham removed the taser probes and then hit one of the deputies in the head with the bar. Ham was then fatally shot by deputies.
The deputy who was hit with the bar was taken to a hospital and was released. Ham had been convicted of armed felonies and drug possession, and also had prior arrests in South Carolina, Georgia, and Arkansas.
