TERRE HAUTE — A neighbor of a Terre Haute man fatally shot by police Sunday night is speaking out about the shock she feels at how her longtime friend died.
Lea Hamblen told the Tribune-Star she has known Rick Evans, 48, and his family for close to 30 years, and she says the events of that fateful night have been haunting her to tears.
“I never thought in a million years he would open the door and pull a gun on the police like that,” Hamblen said Wednesday afternoon.
Evans died of a gunshot wound he received late Sunday after police responded to his residence in the 2400 block of South Ninth Street on a report of a shotgun being fired. Terre Haute Police have stated that officers had been to the residence earlier on a report of an intoxicated man in the neighborhood. When two officers returned to the home, based on the later report of Evans being armed with a shotgun, they also carried police-issued 12-gauge shotguns loaded with department-issued ammunition.
Hamblen said she has lived in the same house on South Ninth Street all her life. The Evans family moved in next door when she was age 10 or 11. Hamblen and her husband, David, have been friendly with the Evans family for years, she said, and they were well aware that Ricky had an alcohol problem. An autopsy revealed that Evans’ blood-alcohol content was 0.4 percent when he died. That is five times the state’s legal limit of intoxication of 0.08 percent BAC.
“He drank a lot, way too much,” Hamblen said, adding that Evans was a good person who had experienced rough times. Many years ago, one of his young daughters was killed in an auto accident. Evans also was disabled, and was partially deaf. He and a brother lived with their elderly mother to help care for her.
The events leading up to Evans’ death late Sunday have been told and retold by witnesses and friends in the neighborhood. Hamblen said she fears the family holds her responsible in some way, so she is eager to clarify what she thinks is misinformation that has been circulating.
“I want the truth to be known,” she said. “There wasn’t a confrontation” between neighbors that caused Evans to become violent. “There was not an ongoing feud,” she said.
“He didn’t come up to my home to confront my husband,” Hamblen said. “He came to the fence yelling and screaming.”
Earlier in the evening, someone had called police to report an intoxicated man in the road on 11th Street. Police responded to the neighborhood, and they soon found an intoxicated Evans at his home. Hamblen said neither she nor her husband made that initial call, but Evans believed they did, and that’s why he was yelling at them after police left.
“David tried so nice to talk to him at the fence,” she recalled.
Hamblen said that a couple months ago, a different neighbor up the street came to the Hamblen residence and got into an altercation with David Hamblen. Lea Hamblen called police, and that neighbor was arrested, she said. Ricky Evans was angry with her over that incident, Hamblen said, and she thinks that is why he thought she had called the police on him Sunday as “drunk and in the street.”
Hamblen said she was used to Evans’ activities, so after he went into his house the night of his death, she thought the incident was over. She and her husband went out to sit in their side yard with another neighbor and that woman’s small son, who was playing on their trampoline.
The evening was quiet, Hamblen said, until Evans came outside again with his shotgun and fired it.
“We all freaked,” Hamblen said. “David told him, ‘She didn’t call the cops on you, Ricky.’”
But, Hamblen did call police to report the shotgun blast.
“I’m sure he fired it in the air,” Hamblen said, noting that Evans had fired the gun in the past. But with the neighbor child on the trampoline in the back yard, the incident was too much to overlook.
When police arrived armed with their own shotguns, Hamblen said, she knew the situation was bad. But she did not expect Evans to kick open the door as police say he did.
Police report that Evans was armed with his shotgun and pointed it at the officers, who said they heard Evans inside his residence pumping the shotgun prior to his opening the door.
Since that night, Hamblen said she has had a hard time sleeping.
“You always think, ‘what if, what if,’” she said.
Other friends of the Evans family also have called the Tribune-Star to comment on that night’s shooting.
“I know the family’s hurting,” a pastor for the family said. “And I know the officers felt bad about it.”
But the pastor questioned whether deadly force was needed to resolve the issue.
Another friend called to say that Evans may not have realized what was going on since he was hearing impaired.
Terre Haute Police investigators are now waiting on toxicology results to finalize their report on the shooting. Those results could take up to 10 days to return.
The police report then will be forwarded to the Vigo County prosecutor for additional investigation to determine whether the police officers acted appropriately.
Funeral services for Evans will be conducted at 1 p.m. today at DeBaun Springhill Chapel. Burial will be at Highland Lawn Cemetery.
Lisa Trigg can be reached at (812) 231-4254 or lisa.trigg@tribstar.com.
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