Mar. 28, 2024 8:12 PM
Visitors: 1
|
Rumrill/1936
Jenkins/1929
Jackson/1955
Fitzgerald/1931
Cummings/1933
|
|
|
|
|
|
John Kevin Lamm
- Jan. 01, 1998 -
|
(329)
|
Pass your cursor over pic to see larger version! Click pic for full version!
|
Resided: |
AK, USA
|
Born: | Sep. 06, 1971 |
Fallen: | Jan. 01, 1998 |
Race/Sex: | Caucasian Male / 26 yrs. of age |
| Agency |
Dept: | Fairbanks Police Dept. - AK
911 Cushman Street Fairbanks, AK
99701 USA (907)459-6500 |
County: | Fairbanks North Star Borough |
Dept. Type: | Municipal/Police |
Hero's Rank: | Patrolman |
Sworn Date: | 2/1995 |
FBI Class: | Homicide - Gun |
Weapon Class: | Firearm |
Agency URL: | Click Here
|
Badge: | 338 |
|
Bio: John Kevin Lamm was born on Sept. 6, 1971, in Florence, OR, to Lynn and Larie Lamm. He was the youngest of three children (Don, Craig and John).
John grew up Oregon, Washington, and Alaska and attended H.S. in North Pole, AK. Lamm left school before graduation but obtained his GED in 1990. He received credit for several college courses through his law enforcement training. Before beginning his police career, Lamm worked as a heavy equipment operator in Fairbanks and as a carpenter in Sweetwater, TX. From childhood he aspired to be a police officer and joined the "Explorers Post 1, a law enforcement program for 14- to 21-year-olds sponsored by the Fairbanks Police Dept." He also served more than 500 hours over two years in the North Pole police reserves before he entered the Police Academy at the age of 21.
Lamm graduated from the Police Academy at Sitka in 1992. His father delivered the commencement address. He worked for two years as a campus police officer at the U. of AK at Fairbanks before joining the Fairbanks Police Dept. in Feb. of 1995. Officer Lamm worked in patrol (and "excelled particularly in the area of DWI arrests") for the Fairbanks force and was also in charge of the Police Cadet program. He was a 2-year veteran of the Dept. (and a 4-year law enforcement veteran) at the time of his death. John Kevin Lamm married Holly Carroll on Dec. 21, 1997 (only 11 days before his death). He had fallen "head-over heels in love" with her in the fall and they were married in Dec. after a "whirlwind romance." Both had been single parents (Holly with a 6-year-old son and Kevin with a 7-year-old son) living in the Fairbanks area. |
Survived by: |
a son, Eliott, 7, and a step-son, Jake, 6; his father, Lynn Lamm, and step-mother, Lare Lamm of Sitka; his mother, Larie Minnery of Dayton, OH; and two brothers, Don Lamm, 31, of Fairbanks, and Craig Lamm, 29, of Burien, WA.
|
|
Fatal Incident Summary
Offender: |
Joey Lee Dewolf
|
|
|
Location: |
AK
USA
Thu. Jan. 01, 1998
|
Summary: |
Fairbanks Officer John Kevin Lamm, 26, was shot and killed by a suicidal man on New Year's Day, 1998. His assailant committed suicide at the scene. Lamm became the second officer killed in the line of duty in Fairbanks (Chief Alvin Miller was the first on Nov. 2, 1908).
Officer Lamm was working the regular evening shift on Thursday, Jan. 1, 1998, when a Fairbanks woman, Shelley Addy, called police dispatch about her "longtime boyfriend," Joey Lee Dewolf, 27. Addy told police that Dewolf was drunk, suicidal and had a gun, and "she wanted someone to check on him and get him out of her apartment" in South Fairbanks. However, Addy gave no indication that Dewolf had an arsenal of guns including "two assault-type rifles."
The couple had met in Kalispell, MT, and had been together for five years and had a 2-year-old daughter together. Dewolf began a whiskey drinking "binge" on New Year's Eve and continued it through the next day. By evening he had gotten into a "domestic dispute" with Addy and she became convinced that he was going to kill himself and "grabbed" her two children and "hurried out."
Addy drove to a friend's house across town and "debated what to do." She decided to call the police and after doing so drove back to her apartment where she met the three officers who responded to the call, Officer Lamm, Officer Matthew Soden, 26, and Officer Charles Williams, 38, (the entire on-duty force of the Dept.). The officers tried to contact Dewolf inside the house by "pounding" on the door as Addy told them that the phone was not working as Dewolf had earlier "ripped it off the wall."
Police "checked Dewolf's record" and informed the three officers at the scene that Dewolf had only "minor charges" and "nothing to indicate a hostility to police." When Dewolf didn't answer the door or the phone, the officers used Addy's key to unlock the front door. The three officers entered the apt. with their guns drawn.
Kevin Lamm was gunned down by a suicidal "subject" who apparently perceived himself to be the protagonist in his own personal war. The "war" he waged was against the police. Whoever responded and however many. This warped individual sat in a dark corner of his home, obscured by a blanket hung over a door. He awaited the arrival of "the enemy" with an AR15 and several hundred rounds of ammo, spread in a tactical fashion throughout the house. Police entered the small, rectangular, lighted living room, via a door which would only partially open because of the placement of a sofa. Once all three were in and virtually "trapped" by the furniture, the "war" began as the "subject" opened fire. He did his best to kill all three, firing at the one furthest from him first, Officer Charles Williams, then the closest, Officer Matt Soden. He grazed Soden's head through the skin to the bone, knocking him to the floor. With Williams retreating out of the line of fire, and Soden possibly dead, this left one more--Kevin Lamm--for the "suspect's" full attention. He fired thirteen rounds into the sofa that Lamm was hiding behind, all the while with Lamm firing back at the now moving death machine. Lamm cleared the way for Soden and Williams to get out, but he never had a chance to move. Soden was struck again once outside, the shots going through the walls. Lamm was hit several times with one fatal strike to the heart. (Dept. of Public Safety Quarterly, March 1988)
Lamm and Dewolf "traded more than two dozen shots in less than 30 seconds." Lamm was "hopelessly outgunned" as four bullets from the semi-automatic rifle fired by Dewolf penetrated Lamm's "bullet-proof" vest which was made of a special dense plastic and designed only to defend against handguns. The vest "was no match" for Dewolf's "7.62mm rounds." The officer "died almost immediately."
Officer Soden was "grazed" in the head and arm but "was not gravely wounded," and "crawled back out the door." Officer Williams, "who had remained by the door, was unharmed."
Officers Soden and Williams were able to escape the fire from Dewolf due to the heroic action by Officer Lamm. The banner headline in the Fairbanks News-Miner on the day of Lamm's funeral read "FAREWELL TO A HERO." Officer Lamm's father, Sitka Police Chief Lynn Lamm, also later described his son as a hero who died trying to protect his fellow officers. The Fairbanks Police Dept. posthumously presented John Kevin Lamm its Medal of Honor for "heroism and extreme courage."
Dewolf was hit three times, once in the abdomen, once through the buttocks and once in the foot. He then "placed the muzzle of his rifle at his own jaw and pulled the trigger." The round that killed him "continued through the ceiling and narrowly missed a man in the upstairs apt."
On Jan. 18, Officer Lamm's father, Lynn Lamm, the Chief of Police in Sitka, AK, held a news conference in Fairbanks that was attended by "several local officials." He charged that Fairbanks had "failed to provide a proper level of public safety protection for a city its size" in that the city had "two few cops on the street." He pointed out at the news conference (and later in an editorial in the Fairbanks News-Miner on Feb. 25) that a city the size of Fairbanks should have double the 38 officers it had in 1998.
|
Disposition: |
committed suicide at the scene |
Source: |
Book Excerpted in part or in whole from Dr. Wilbanks book-
FORGOTTEN HEROES: POLICE OFFICERS KILLED IN ALASKA, 1867-1998
By Dr. Wm. Wilbanks FL International University
To be published by Turner Publications in early 1999
|
|
|
Last Updated: May. 29, 2019 |
|
|
|
Smith/1929
|
Johnson/1923
|
Flynn/1928
|
Osborne/1927
|
Gresham/1920
|
Johnston/1933
|
Porter/1939
|
Barry/1929
|
|
|
|
|
Bolon/1855
Getman/1858
McKinney/1850
Steele/1845
Lockhart/1858
York/1861
Barton/1857
Lauer/1854
Badger/1853
Forsyth/1794
|
|
|