ATF

ATF agents’ tactics apparently violate agency pursuit guidelines

By David Francis, Washington Examiner

July 28, 2006

Arlington - Federal agents involved in a high-speed chase, which ultimately resulted in the suicide of a Washington man, appear to have violated federal training guidelines by pursuing the man after the agents’ car was sideswiped on Interstate 395.

Three Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents, who were in the region to train before leaving for Iraq, were sideswiped on I-395 by 24-year-old District resident Travis Lamar Hampton during rush hour at approximately 5:30 p.m. on July 5.

The agents, who were in an unmarked rental car with no siren or radio and wearing civilian clothes, then pursued Hampton to the Glebe Road exit. Hampton open fired on agents after they identified themselves, according to official accounts of the incident. It is not clear if the agents left their car with their guns drawn.

The agents and Hampton then engaged in a shootout along Glebe Road before Hampton forcefully entered a home in the 3200 block of 13th Street South, shot a tenant in the leg, then engaged in a 10-and-a-half-hour standoff with police before taking his own life.

Hampton had served 30 days in jail for marijuana possession but had never been convicted of a violent crime, according to court records.

Federal regulations are clear that the agents were allowed to return fire on Hampton once he open fired on them. What Federal Law Enforcement Training Center guidelines bring into question, however, is whether the agents should have engaged Hampton in the high-speed chase that led to the shootout.

The guidelines lay out a number of conditions for pursuit, many of which appear to have been violated by the agents in their pursuit of Hampton. For example, agents are to pursue if they have reason to believe the suspect has committed or is attempting to commit a serious crime. The only contact the agents had with Hampton was the car accident, according to official accounts of the incident. There was no indication Hampton was guilty of more serious offenses.

Also, the agents pursued Hampton in an unmarked rental car with no siren or radio.

According to the training guidelines, all emergency equipment must be activated during a pursuit and a dispatcher had to be notified of the chase. Because the agents¹ car was not a law enforcement vehicle, they had no way to follow either of these guidelines.

Calls for comment to the ATF were not returned. In the past, the agency has said the agents followed procedure and acted properly.

The Federal Law Enforcement Training Center “serves as an interagency law enforcement training organization for more than 80 federal agencies,” according to its Web site. ATF is listed as one of the federal agencies whose agents receive training at the center, although it is unclear whether the agents involved in the chase received pursuit training there.

Spokesmen for Alexandria and Arlington police have said it is their policy not to pursue vehicles involved in hit and runs in most instances. The Arlington investigation into the incident is ongoing.

Kent Willis, executive director of the Virginia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said the under the circumstances, the agents should not have pursued Hampton.

“By anybody¹s standards, this high-speed chase should not have taken place,” he said. “The rules vary from place to place, but I know of no guidelines that would not have been violated by this particular chase.”

Family still awaiting answers on death

David Francis, Examiner Staff Writer

Oct 16, 2006

Arlington - More than four months after what authorities say was the suicide of a Southeast man following an eight-hour standoff with Arlington and Alexandria police, the family of Travis Lamar Hampton is not satisfied with what they know.

“We’re not getting any answers,” Hampton’s sister Tonya Kirby said. “Everything is ‘under investigation.’ We understand that it takes time, but if it’s a suicide, it should be an open-and-shut case.”

According to the official account of what happened, Hampton, who had served 30 days in prison for marijuana possession, sideswiped an unmarked car with three federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents on Interstate 395 on July 5. The agents, in the area for training before being deployed to Iraq, then chased Hampton to the Glebe Road exit. They exchanged gunfire with Hampton, setting off a gun battle that ended on the 3200 block of 13th Street in Arlington, where Hampton engaged in a standoff with Arlington and Alexandria police before taking his own life.

Many questions remain unanswered. Did the agents, who were wearing civilian clothes, exit the car with their guns drawn? Why did Hampton, with no history of violent crime, react so violently? How did Hampton kill himself?

It appears as if the agents should not have chased Hampton in the first place. As first reported in The Examiner, Federal Law Enforcement Training Center guidelines suggest agents should not engage in a chase unless they are in a vehicle that can be identified as a federal law enforcement vehicle, and only if the person they are pursuing poses an immediate threat to the officers or the public.

The ATF did not return calls for comment.

Kirby, 34 years old and living in Greenville, S.C., said that since the incident occurred on July 5, details from Arlington County Police have been scarce. She said her family was informed the 24-year-old Hampton apparently took his own life only minutes before the media was told of his identity. Her father, who lives in Newport News, did not have the opportunity to tell her mother Hampton was dead before her mother heard it on the news, Kirby said.

Kirby said only Hampton’s fiancée, 21-year-old Southeast resident Ebony Luckett, was contacted during the standoff.
Arlington police “told me they were going to let me talk to him on the bullhorn, but that didn’t happen,” Luckett said. “They didn’t let me talk to him.”

Arlington Detective Rosa Ortiz, who serves as a contact point for the family, said the county’s investigation into the matter is ongoing.

“We’re still depending on other people to give us final reports,” she said. She said it is “not unusual” for after action reports to take months.

Arlington police spokesman John Lisle said the report should be done in the next two weeks. He said it would then be forwarded to the Commonwealth Attorney, who will determine if charges should be brought against anyone involved.

Lucy Caldwell, a spokeswoman with the Fairfax office of the Virginia Health Department, said the autopsy confirmed the death was a suicide, but said the family had not yet received a copy of the medical examiner’s report.

“It’s up to the family to follow-up,” she said.

Kirby said without this information, it is difficult for her family to move past the death of her brother. She is not yet convinced her brother took his own life.

“I know a suicide is hard to accept,” she said, “but there are too many questions.”

Sister says ‘too many loopholes’ in man’s death

By David Francis, Examiner Staff Writer

Oct 18, 2006

Arlington - Pictures of a blood-spattered, bullet-riddled car have raised new questions about what happened between federal agents and a 24-year-old Southeast man during a July 5 high-speed chase and shoot out on Interstate 395 and Glebe Road in Arlington.

According to the official account of the event, Travis Lamar Hampton on July 5 sideswiped an unmarked sport utility vehicle in which three agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were riding.

The agents — in town for training before being deployed to Iraq and wearing civilian clothes — engaged in a high-speed chase of Hampton, eventually confronting him on the Glebe Road exit ramp. The police said the two sides exchanged bullets, setting off a gun battle that ended on the 3200 block of 13th Street in Arlington. Hampton stormed a house there, shot and wounded a tenant, then engaged in a standoff with Arlington and Alexandria police. Police said that they later entered the house and found Hampton dead from an apparent gunshot wound. Police later told The Examiner that Hampton had killed himself.

Arlington police spokesman John Lisle said the investigation into the shootout and standoff is ongoing. He said he expects to the final report to be sent to the commonwealth attorney in two weeks.

Hampton’s sister Tonya Kirby said she has yet to receive an autopsy report and is not getting enough answers from investigators.
“There’s too many loopholes” in the official account, she said.

Hampton’s only prior encounter with police was an arrest for marijuana possession. He served 30 days in a Virginia prison in 2002.

The only injury to Hampton acknowledged by officials is the self-inflicted gunshot wound. A copy of Hampton’s July 17 death certificate obtained by The Examiner confirms this injury, though the certificate list the cause of death as “pending” instead of “suicide,” which was listed as an option on the form. Sean Cummings, director of the funeral home that prepared Hampton’s body for burial, said Hampton’s body showed evidence of multiple injuries. He said Hampton’s left leg was bruised, and his his left shin gashed on the front and back.

“It looked like someone had hit him to knock him down,” he said, describing Hampton as a large man, standing 5’10 and weighing “about 260” pounds. “It looks like someone had clubbed him.”

Cummings also described an injury he called an “open wound” and “gash” on Hampton’s right shoulder and neck. It appears in the car pictures as if the right side of his shoulder and neck would have been near a bullet hole in the headrest.

Cummings added he does not remember an exit wound from the suicide shot. According to his death certificate, Hampton shot himself in the mouth.

Kirby said she noticed the wound on the right side of her brother’s neck during the open-casket viewing. Hampton’s fiancée, Ebony Luckett, said she also noticed the wound.

Pictures of the gold Ford Taurus driven by Hampton seem to indicate he was injured while driving.

The photographs, taken by Luckett in the Arlington impound lot, show what appears to be two bullet holes in the headrest and a steering wheel covered in blood. Near what appears to be a bullet exit hole in the windshield, more blood is splattered. Blood is also on the dashboard and the door.

The car’s back window is shattered and the trunk appears to have three bullet holes.

It is not clear where the car is right now. Arlington police spokesman Lisle said Luckett, who owns the car, was given the opportunity to claim it without charge. He said she did not claim the car, so it was sent to the lot of A-1 Towing in Arlington.
“We had completed all the evidence collection we had to do,” Lisle said. It was released to A-1 “with the consent of the commonwealth attorney.”

Calls to the manager of A-1 to confirm the whereabouts of the car were not returned. Luckett said she was told by the towing company the car was likely sent to a junkyard and destroyed.

ATF spokesman Rich Morianos said he was confident the agents acted properly. He said shots were exchanged, but Hampton fired first.

Pictures of Hampton's vehicle obtained in the investigation

ATF1 ATF2 ATF3

ATF4 ATF5

Sister of man in ATF chase frustrated with autopsy delay

David Francis, Examiner Staff Writer

Nov 13, 2006

Arlington - The sister of the Southeast D.C. man who died in an apparent suicide after being chased by federal agents said she is becoming increasingly frustrated with the Virginia Medical Examiner’s office’s failure to deliver an autopsy report.

Tonya Kirby, sister of Travis Lamar Hampton, has been seeking answers on her brother’s death since July 5, the day Hampton sideswiped three Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents in an unmarked car during rush hour on Interstate 395 in Arlington.

“I realize he’s one in a million cases,” she said. “But I don’t feel like [the medical examiner’s office] thinks he a good person. I feel like they think he’s a menace to society that been exterminated.”

According to the official account of what happened, Hampton sideswiped the agents, who were in the area for training before being deployed to Iraq. The agents then chased Hampton to the Glebe Road exit where they exchanged gunfire with Hampton, setting off a gun battle that ended on the 3200 block of 13th Street in Arlington. Here, Hampton engaged in a standoff with Arlington and Alexandria police before taking his own life.

Law enforcement officials have never released ballistics reports on or pictures of the gun allegedly used by Hampton to commit suicide. Arlington police are conducting the investigation into the incident, and will release their report to the commonwealth attorney once it is complete, police spokesman John Lisle said.

Pictures of the car driven by Hampton in the chase show numerous bullet holes and what appears to be blood on the steering wheel and windshield. Also, The Examiner learned that Hampton’s body showed signs of other injuries not consistent with a gunshot wound to the head, which is listed as the cause of death on the death certificate. The Examiner also reported that the agents apparently violated federal law enforcement training guidelines for high-speed car chases.

Hampton has no history of violent crime. He served 30 days in prison for marijuana possession in 2002.

Kirby believes the autopsy report will clear up questions she has about her brother’s death. However, she said the medical examiner’s office is improperly denying her the right to request the report, and has misled her in what is necessary to do so.

According to e-mails obtained by The Examiner, Kirby contacted Virginia Medical Examiner spokeswoman Lucy Caldwell in late October telling her to contact the medical examiner’s Fairfax office. Kirby said this office would make the information available to her.

Kirby then contacted the Fairfax office, where she was told that she did not qualify as next of kin, and that her father or mother — who both live in Virginia — must make the request in writing. Kirby lives in South Carolina.

According to Virginia state code, siblings over 18 years of age, as well as parents, are considered next of kin. When asked why Kirby did not qualify, Caldwell said she would not immediately be able to provide an answer, as Friday was a state holiday. Calls to the Fairfax medical examiner’s officer were not returned.

Kirby said she was not informed of the proper procedure until she made the formal autopsy request. “This would have eliminated some unnecessary delay in us receiving the information,” she said in an e-mail. She said she was told “that some people do not wish to have such information sent to them. And I said — even if there were unexplained circumstances? And she said that this was the standard ‘procedure.’ ”

New questions arise in ATF killing

By David Francis, The Examiner

Feb. 12, 2007

Arlington - When he exonerated two federal agents last week in the shooting death of a 24-year old Washington man, the Arlington County commonwealth’s attorney made fresh assertions about the case that raised new questions about the incident, a Washington Examiner investigation shows.

County attorney Richard Trodden determined that the agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms acted in self-defense when they chased and fired upon Travis Lamar Hampton seven months ago and that Hampton killed himself after an eight–hour standoff.

In an interview with The Examiner, Trodden presented a new version of a July car chase involving federal agents and the District man including the revelation that the man fled a drug-related robbery and initiated a shootout with the agents.

The new version of events added significant details to the initial account. But additional questions have emerged:

» Whom did Hampton rob? And where exactly did the robbery take place?

» How many shots did the ATF agents fire? How many were fired by Hampton?

» Without a ballistics report, can the public determine Hampton took his own life, or even had a gun?

Hampton’s sister Tonya Kirby said these questions needed to be answered before she could move on. Without looking at the police report, she said her family would not accept Trodden’s account.

“We feel helpless,” she said. “They told us whatever they wanted to tell us. We have no evidence of anything. We weren’t allowed to see the report.”

Trodden said Hampton returned to the District from Fairfax County, where he had robbed a drug dealer of money and marijuana. He was driving in the right–hand emergency lane on Interstate 395 when he sideswiped the agents, who rode in an unmarked rental van. Trodden said Hampton stopped, got out of the car, but jumped back into the auto and fled once the agents — who were in town for training before being deployed to Iraq — identified themselves as “police.”

Hampton then sped to the Glebe Road exit, where two cars waited at a stoplight. The agents followed, and once on the ramp, Trodden said, Hampton initiated the shooting. One agent returned fire and blew out the back windshield of the car as Hampton reentered the vehicle. Hampton then nudged the two cars waiting at the light out of the way and drove north in the southbound lane of Glebe Road.

The agents chased Hampton, with a second significant exchange of gunfire occurring at the intersection of Glebe and Walter Reed Drive. Trodden said Hampton exited the car and again shot at the agents, this time disabling their vehicle. He then drove his vehicle to 13th Street with agents giving chase on foot. He entered a home, shot a tenant and eventually killed himself, Trodden said. Only one agent fired at Hampton throughout the entire incident, according to the commonwealth attorney.

Sometime during this chase, Hampton sustained two wounds to the back of his head, Trodden said. One appeared to be similar to shrapnel wound, while the other resulted from a bullet graze. Trodden said police determined Hampton died by suicide using his own gun.

Without the public release of the ballistic reports, it is impossible to confirm Hampton had a gun or committed suicide. The death certificate lists the cause of death as “pending.” It is also impossible to determine how many shots the parties involved fired.

Trodden said he did not have the exact number of shots fired, but said he believed Hampton had fired more than the agents.

The “robbery” in Fairfax raises questions as well. According to the Fairfax County Police Web site, two robberies occurred on or around July 5, but none of the suspects match the description of the 5 foot 10 inch, 260-pound Hampton. Who was the victim of Hampton’s robbery? Where in Fairfax did it occur?

Trodden said the crime was reported as brandishing a weapon, although no reports of this crime are listed on the Fairfax police Web site on or around July 5.

The severity of the wounds Hampton suffered on the back of his head is also unknown, as is whether he suffered wounds to his legs, as described to The Examiner by the person who prepared his body for burial.

Trodden said the neck wounds were not life-threatening and that Hampton died from a self-inflicted gun shot in his mouth. The person who prepared Hampton’s body for burial said there was no exit wound.

Finally, the content of a note Hampton held against a window during the standoff remains a mystery.

Because Trodden determined the agents did not break any laws by chasing Hampton, he said the police report would not be released publicly. He added the ATF agents were not interviewed in person for the investigation. Instead, witness statements and tape recordings of the agent’s statements were used.

Trodden’s account confirms aspects of the incident established through a seven-month Examiner investigation, the results of which have been published from July to November. Hampton’s head injuries are consistent with the pictures of the bullet-ridden, blood-spattered car he drove. Trodden confirmed the agents actively chased Hampton, even after their van was disabled.

Trodden did not determine if the agents should have chased Hampton in the first place. A few weeks after the incident, The Examiner reported that, under Federal Law Enforcement Training Guidelines, a high-speed chase would not have been allowed in this case. Arlington and Alexandria police have also said they would not have pursued Hampton.

“I did not offer any opinions” about whether guidelines were followed, Trodden said. “Criminally, they did nothing wrong.”