Even though Ogden, Utah, police officer Kenneth Hammond dismisses the label, he’s a hero whose cool reaction to a Salt Lake City shopping mall shooting saved lives without a doubt.
After an early Valentine’s dinner with his wife, Hammond – off duty and wearing jeans and a long-sleeved T-shirt – heard the popping sounds of gunfire one floor below him in the Trolley Square Mall.
Hammond told his wife to head back to the restaurant and call 911. He pulled out his .45-caliber handgun, yelled to mall patrons that he was an off-duty cop and began to exchange gunfire with 18-year-old Sulejman Talovic, who had killed five people and wounded four in less than six minutes.
We’d all like to think we’d do the right thing in such circumstances, but it’s nothing to take for granted. We need only to think back to those excruciating hours at Columbine High School in 1999 as well-armed officers were kept at bay by their commanders while innocents were being killed inside.
The people in Utah are fortunate that Hammond acted without hesitation. Salt Lake City police chief Chris Burbank said, “There is no question his quick actions saved the lives of numerous other people.”
Hammond says he was just doing what any other officer would do. “I was just the one that was there,” the 33-year-old Hammond said. His first instinct was to save lives, whatever the risk to himself. His presence at the mall was a gift. Hammond was quickly joined by a Salt Lake City officer and then a SWAT team. Within minutes, the gunman had been killed.
Hammond’s wife, Sarina, an Ogden police dispatcher, also was the picture of sanity and judgment in the harrowing moment. She called 911 not only to alert police to the shooting but to tell them her husband was an off-duty cop, not a second shooter. She even described what he was wearing.
We salute the Hammonds and the other Utah officers for their actions even as we mourn the innocent victims of Talovic’s rage.
For many Coloradans, the teenage rampage will bring back a flood of horrific memories from Columbine. As acquaintances of the shooter try to understand his actions, they will wonder if they missed any warning signs. We can’t help but think of the insights from the disputed depositions given by the parents of the Columbine killers, which might be locked away for 25 years and then shredded.
Some violence is just impossible to prevent, but a society’s best defense is to recognize any warning signs. It doesn’t hurt to have more officers like Hammond around either.
