Legislation enforcement officers from throughout the state of Florida and at least as much away as Fort Really worth, Texas, converged on the Destin-Fort Walton Seashore Convention Middle Saturday to say goodbye to Okaloosa County Deputy Ray Hamilton, who had been killed the 7 days prior to executing, by all accounts, what he cherished most.
Hamilton, a 5 12 months veteran of the drive, was fatally shot on Christmas Eve just after responding with his Specific Response Group unit to a domestic violence call. He experienced just concluded his initial 12 months with the group and just lately had been promoted to the rank of corporal.
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“Ray was executing what he was meant to do. His lifelong aspiration of helping others was observed as a general public servant in this article in Okaloosa County,” his wife Renee informed those people collected for a celebration of daily life in a recorded message. “Ray went to operate each individual working day with so substantially respect and love for his occupation.”
Hamilton’s humility, his compassion, his iron will, his love of family and his endearing individuality were celebrated in equal measure by the numerous speakers who stood to converse of a lifestyle slice limited at the age of 34. Saturday would have been he and Renee’s eighth marriage anniversary.
“Ray normally claimed ‘I want to improve the globe with kindness,'” Renee Hamilton mentioned. “He was my most effective buddy, the love of my existence, my Prince Charming, the most effective section of me and my everlasting soul mate. It truly is Alright to mourn this tragic occasion. It hurts so significantly since he beloved us so much. All I ask from you when you raise a glass tonight to start the new yr (is) that your New Year’s resolution is to be more like Ray.”
There had been effortlessly 750 individuals in attendance at the event, the huge the vast majority carrying the uniform of regulation enforcement. Sheriff Eric Aden mentioned that he’d obtained phone calls from across the state and country. The Walton County Sheriff’s Office environment sent deputies to include patrol shifts so that Okaloosa deputies could go to the solemn ceremony.
Gov. Ron DeSantis had purchased the U.S. and Florida flags half-staff at the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office environment in Crestview, Okaloosa County Courthouse in Crestview and Town Corridor of Crestview.
“Corporal Hamilton will be remembered for his selfless courage to protect the life of some others at the cost of his possess,” DeSantis wrote in his order.
Okaloosa County selected to honor the fallen deputy by lowering the flags at all county-maintained buildings.
Following the support, a procession of hundreds of police vehicles began a trek to Crestview where a ceremony that included presentations, faucets, a 21-gun salute and the final simply call for a fallen officer were to just take position. A huge group of motorcyclists followed the procession. Organizers of the “Journey for Ray” promoted it by contacting for “plenty of bikes that it shakes Ray’s feet in heaven.”
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How was Hamilton killed?
Hamilton and the Special Reaction Group have been identified as out on Christmas Eve morning to facial area down a guy with a identified prison file and very likely armed who experienced barricaded himself inside of a dwelling on North Park Boulevard.
As Hamilton and two other officers positioned on their own at the rear of a back again property fence, the man, later identified as 43-12 months-previous Timothy Value Williams, fired from inside the home, placing Hamilton in the head. The officer would die that afternoon at a nearby healthcare facility.
Renee Hamilton reported the 2nd dilemma she’d requested Sheriff Eric Aden when she achieved him at the healthcare facility next the capturing was no matter if any individual else had been injured. That, she reported, is what her spouse would have preferred to know.
“His only issue would have been was whether or not every person else made it dwelling protected,” she explained.
Cost-Williams, 43, was himself wounded as he exited the townhome from which he had fired. He experienced a slight injuries and now faces a demand of very first diploma premediated murder.
Hamilton gets to be the sixth Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Workplace officer killed in the line of responsibility, the fifth since 2008. All of the deaths considering the fact that the earliest a single in 1923 have been the consequence of pictures fired as officers responded to domestic violence or psychological overall health-relevant calls.
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Hamilton had remaining the nursing career immediately after getting rid of a mate to an overdose, a friend, Dan Martin, informed people collected.
“He went into legislation enforcement mainly because he never ever wanted any one to go by way of that,” he mentioned.
Aden said the Sheriff’s Office environment ideal absent saw in Hamilton characteristics that would make him unique as a deputy. His 1st assignment, in 2017, was as a crime scene investigator. He moved within just two years to become a field teaching officer and, according to the sheriff, was “possibly the greatest area schooling officer we have at any time experienced at this company.”
In the relatively shorter time he put in as an Okaloosa County deputy Hamilton experienced gained two Lifestyle Preserving Awards.
All people who spoke recalled Hamilton’s smile and pleasant way of making all people truly feel like the most critical particular person in the area.
Buddy Caden Downing called Hamilton “the most beautiful human being I at any time encountered.”
“He was a great spouse and an complete warrior,” Downing claimed.
Aden claimed that Hamilton’s loss of life will endlessly transform the Okaloosa Sheriff’s Workplace approach to the Xmas time, but that he had individually collected the strength to press via by leaning on Hamilton’s family as a result of preparations for Saturday’s party.
“We will get by this,” he claimed.
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