Man faces charges in shooting of cop

Bill Gang

Friday, Jan. 16, 1998 | 10:45 a.m.

Metro Police Officer Steven Hammack thought the "oh, no looks" on the faces of two young men in an aging Chevrolet Monte Carlo at 3 a.m. on Dec. 9 was a sure sign he was pursuing a pair of curfew violating juvenile.

But what should have been a routine traffic stop turned ugly when the young men chose to flee at high speed until the chase ended a few blocks away with the car crashing into a brick wall.

Hammack said it turned even uglier when the driver got out, leveled a 9mm pistol at him as he sat in the front of his patrol car, and fired a shot.

The officer told Justice of the Peace James Bixler on Thursday that he fell across the seat in self defense but the bullet crashed through the windshield and lodged in his left arm.

As the shooter approached the police car, Hammack recalled thinking, "If I don't get out my gun and return fire, I'm going to die."

"I didn't like that option," he said under questioning from Deputy District Attorney Craig Hendricks at the preliminary hearing for the two men charged in the incident.

Hammack said he fired two shots from inside the car, sending the startled gunman fleeing on foot along Oakey Boulevard near Valley View Boulevard. A third shot was fired after the officer climbed from the car and he said the two men scurried off in different directions.

The alleged gunman, Joseph Browhaw, 18, was captured by other Metro officers as he hid in the bushes of a nearby yard.

Jerloin Sanders, 21, an ex-felon convicted for his involvement with a short-barreled shotgun, was apprehended as he walked several blocks away.

At the end of Thursday's hearing, both were ordered to stand trial in District Judge Jeff Sobel's courtroom on charges in the incident. Arraignment is set for Feb. 2.

Testimony at the hearing indicated that Browhaw admitted to arresting officers that he had been in the car with Sanders and a third man but the shot that hit Hammack was fired by that third man.

Sanders has denied being there, but testimony indicated his fingerprint was found on a fender of the Monte Carlo. A short-barreled shotgun was found on the car's rear seat.

But the case is not without problems.

Hammack had conceded that he cannot identify either of the men in the car and a picture he picked out of a photo lineup as a man similar in appareance to the shooter was neither of the defendants.

The officer's description of the shooter was of a man with very short hair, in contrast to Browhaw's bushy hair.

Hammack, however, was adamant that there were only two people in the car he pursued.

Browhaw is charged with attempted murder, possession of a short-barreled shotgun and failing to stop on the signal of a police officer -- all felonies.

Sanders is beihg held on the identical shotgun charge and a count of being an ex-felon in possession of a firearm because of his 1994 conviction.