Hank Earl Carr

Hank Earl Carr (born January 31, 1968 in Atlanta , Georgia , † May 19, 1998 in Brooksville , Florida ) was an American violent criminal. On May 19, 1998, he killed a four-year-old boy, two police detectives and a Highway Patrol Trooper in Florida before shooting himself after being held hostage for several hours.

Early life

Hank Carr was the son of a truck driver and a nurse. He attended Englewood Elementary School and was enrolled in Lemon Bay High School in 1984 , which he dropped out after just under three weeks. His parents divorced when he was two years old, at the age of 14 he moved from home and tried to stand on his own two feet. At 15 he was arrested for the first time for stealing a car, and at 17 again for assault .

Eventually, at the age of 18, he was convicted of burglary, assault and theft and imprisoned in Sarasota County , Florida. Although he was released early, he was arrested again less than a year later for violating his probation requirements. In April 1989 he was sentenced to four and a half years in prison for drug possession, resistance to the police and assault on a law enforcement officer, but was released early again in 1990 as part of a government release program.

Faced with another prison sentence for aggravated assault that same year, he moved to Marietta , Ohio . There he met the married Bernice Bowen and their two children. But even in Marietta he came into conflict with the law. He was suspected of having kicked a puppy to death in front of children and shot a neighbor dog. Carr was the owner of several handguns, including assault rifles. In August 1992, just two miles from his home, the body of 18-year-old Rhonda Manley, who had been sexually murdered, was found. Carr had been questioned as a suspect at the time, but was not prosecuted due to lack of evidence. The murder could only be proven in 2002 the convicted Aubrey Davis. Since Carr was only on the Florida State Criminal Register and not on the National Criminal Computer Index, Ohio officials did not see his criminal history.

Despite a pending arrest warrant in Florida, he moved back to Florida in 1995 with Bernice Bowen and their two children, five-year-old Kayla and four-year-old Joey Bennett, and from 1997 they lived in Tampa .

Joey Bennett dies

On the morning of May 19, 1998, Hank Carr and his girlfriend drove to a nearby Tampa fire station and asked for help for Joey Bennett, who had a gunshot wound to the face. Despite immediate rescue measures by the firefighters and paramedics called in, the boy died without having regained consciousness. While the boy's mother stayed at the fire station, Carr drove back to the apartment for unknown reasons, where he was met by alerted police officers.

Carr identified himself to officers as Joseph Bennett, his girlfriend's husband and father of Joey Bennett. He testified that he had shot the boy in an accident while trying to put a loaded rifle aside. The officers assumed that they actually had Joseph Bennett in front of them, since Carr was able to name his date of birth and his alias identity was also confirmed by Bernice Bowen. The officers initially assumed an accident and wanted to record the statements in the police office. Perhaps out of fear that his true identity would be revealed, Carr suddenly attempted to escape on foot, but was caught up and arrested by several officers.

Although the officers were now more suspicious, Carr's real identity remained hidden. After a brief interview at the police office, the officers drove Carr back to his apartment and began the crime scene inspection. They also seized the murder weapon, a Simonov SKS-45 - Self-loading carbine and another weapon of this type. According to a later statement by one of the officers, Carr's statements did not match the evidence found at the crime scene.

Escape

Carr was then put in the back seat of a Ford Taurus civilian vehicle and was supposed to be brought back to the police office by Tampa Police Detectives Randy Scott Bell, 44 and Rick Joe Childers, 46. The detainee was not thoroughly searched and his hands were handcuffed in front of his body instead of behind his back, since the officers did not consider the detainee dangerous. They carried the confiscated weapons together with the live ammunition in the trunk. In addition, the two officers took place in the front seats, which were not separated from the back seat by a grille.

During the drive, Carr opened the handcuffs with a duplicate key attached to his necklace and was able to snatch the official gun from the shoulder holster of the officer at the wheel in the middle of an exit on Interstate 275 in Tampa. While Detective Childers was immediately killed by a headshot, there was a scuffle between Carr and Detective Bell, in which Carr finally murdered him with a headshot and also took his service weapon. Local residents who had observed the incident called the police. Carr then took his self-loading rifle and ammunition out of the trunk and at gunpoint acquired a holding Ford Ranger , the owner of which fled.

Carr then fled via Interstate 75 , where he was soon discovered and pursued by Florida Highway Patrol Trooper James Bradford-Jean Crooks (23). Carr stopped his car at the Florida State Road 54 exit in Pasco County . Patrol Trooper James Crooks had only been on duty for a few months and was radioing his supervisor when Carr got out with the self-loading rifle and shot Crooks through the windshield in the upper body. Carr then went to the side window and killed the officer with a close range head shot.

Carr then continued to escape via Interstate 75, engaging in a savage gunfight with the police for about 22 miles. He damaged two patrol cars and a police helicopter, injuring two officers. Two truck drivers were also injured when Carr hit their truck. One was hit in the shoulder by a projectile, which smashed his left arm. While breaking a roadblock on the Hernando County border , Carr was shot and seriously injured by the police, and the tires on his getaway car were destroyed.

hostage taking

He then left the Interstate at the Florida State Road 50 exit and stormed a Shell gas station in Brooksville , where he held the pregnant, 27-year-old employee Stephanie Kramer hostage. In a short time, over 100 emergency vehicles and more than 200 officials from four counties gathered in front of the gas station . Carr was then called and interviewed at the gas station by local radio station WFLA 970 and the Tampa Bay Times , among others , with Carr continuing to describe the death of Joey Bennett as an accident. Pictures of the gas station with the massive police presence have now been broadcast live on TV by news channels.

Carr was with his hostage behind the sales counter, which was protected by bulletproof glass, so the positioned snipers could not be used. Carr promised to let his hostage go if he could speak to Bernice Bowen, after which she was flown in by police helicopter. After she had spoken several times on the phone and Carr said goodbye, he released the hostage. After the hostage was brought to safety, the Tampa Police Bombing Squad blew two holes in the back and side walls of the building, through which Hernando County Special Forces used tear gas to storm the gas station. However, Hank Carr had already killed himself with a shot in the head.

Trivia

It took almost ten hours from the fatal shot at Joey Bennett to the suicide of Hank Carr, covering nearly 50 miles from Tampa , Hillsborough County to Brooksville , Hernando County . The hostage-taking in the gas station had lasted four and a half hours.

The last time that three officers were murdered in just one day in Florida was on April 1, 1976. In response to the deaths of Randy Bell, Rick Childers and James Crooks, Florida Governor Lawton Chiles had all flags on government buildings hoisted at half mast .

In addition to an instructional video for the police, the original film footage of Hank Carr's arrest and hostage-taking was also used to create an episode for the reality TV series " World's Wildest Police Videos " (broadcast on German television under the title "In action, the most spectacular police videos in the world") .

The channel TruTV dedicated an episode to the event under the title “The Killer's Wife” for the TV series “ Crime Stories ”. In addition, the whole case was filmed by the station Investigation Discovery in the documentary "Negotiating With a Mad Man".

Since Bernice Bowen had withheld the real identity of Hank Carr from the authorities despite several interrogations, she was found complicit in the deaths of the three officers and sentenced to 21 years in prison.

Web links

Individual evidence

personal data
SURNAME	Carr, Hank Earl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American violent criminal
DATE OF BIRTH	January 31, 1968
PLACE OF BIRTH	Atlanta
DATE OF DEATH	May 19, 1998
Place of death	Brooksville

[1] ttps://www.odmp.org/officer/3717-police-officer-clark-hamilton-curlette

[2] ttp://www.imdb.com/title/tt0155394/

[3] ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaIauMJmro8