Willy McMahon: Unjust

To the Editor:

Ron Hammersmith was robbed and murdered in July of 2009. There has been an ongoing investigation to find the killer ever since. Several close friends of mine were detained for questioning during the aftermath. They were questioned because one of these friends found a phone two blocks from his house and tried to call numbers in the phone to return it. The next day (shortly before Ron passed away) police arrived to question him and others at his house about the phone.

There had been a party at the house the night Ron was attacked. A friend at the party walked home between 3 and 5 a.m. and was assaulted by three males trying to rob him. He fended them off and made it home. He had his own blood and other blood from the men who attacked him on his clothes. Police tested the blood on his clothes against Ron’s DNA. The blood traces did not match Ron’s, and he was released.

Police have questioned him and other friends multiple times over the past year and a half. Apparently sometime shortly after the incident a man named Joel who was severely intoxicated confessed the crime to police. The statement was inadmissible because of his state of mind. Also someone who works at a bar that he was allegedly at the night he was attacked said that he had a verbal altercation and threatened another man shortly before getting kicked out. There was another confession made by a man to his family members during the summer of 2010.

There seems to be many loose ends that were not covered well except for the “20-year-old suspect,” who I will not name that was written about in several news articles and remains the prime suspect. Recently there was a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Hammersmith’s killer. As of that time police had questioned several friends again about the “20-year-old suspect”  and his possible involvement. As everyone has told them I will say it as well HE IS INNOCENT.

If you want to provide justice to the family of Ron, you need to broaden your search and stop focusing on dead end leads and think about the other things I mentioned. I really feel for the Hammersmith family, and I feel they are getting shorted by less than optimal detective work.

Willy McMahon
-Fargo