KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Two parents say they’re at their wit’s end after the new governor-elect of Missouri made it clear the detective in prison for shooting their son, will be home with his family sooner rather than later.
“We don’t like that we have to come out here for his birthday, we don’t like that we have to come here on Father’s Day and they don’t like the fact that he’s in jail but he still has life in him,” Lauire Bey, Cameron Lamb’s mother, said.
Lt. Governor Mike Kehoe said again he’ll send former Kansas City Police Detective Eric DeValkenaere home. That promise came in his first news conference since his election night win.
White officer who fatally shot Black man shouldn’t have been in his backyard, judge rules in suit
DeValkenaere was convicted in the 2019 death of 26-year-old Cameron Lamb. The former detective entered his backyard without a warrant. He’s currently serving time at an out-of-state facility.
“Look at the miscarriage of justice here, look at how many times this case has been in front of some type of judge and they mentioned that he is responsible what does that say to us, what does that say to the community,” Aquil Bey, Lamb’s father, said.
Aquil Bey says if it was not for the faith they have in God and the strength he has given them the last five years would have been unbearable.
The Bey’s spend their holidays cleaning and maintaining the gravesite of their son.
The ex-detective was convicted two years after he killed Lamb and sentenced to six years in prison.
Despite legal appeals, the conviction hasn’t changed. But a friendship with governor-elect Mike Kehoe may allow him to stop serving time.
“I would say Sarah is a very good friend of my wife and I’s. I met Sarah and Eric before he was in prison wrongly. I believe we need to have Eric’s back and I’ve been very vocal about saying, should I succeed in being governor, Eric will be home with his family. I am still hopeful and prayerful that that happens before I get into the Governor’s Office,” Kehoe said.
“It brought tears to me you know it did because to me this has been a disrespectful process, and it has been something that has been rumored for some time,” Lauire Bey said.
Lamb’s family reacts after ex-KCPD detective Devalkenaere’s conviction upheld
The claim by Kehoe that the ex-detective was wrongly convicted has been denied by the state’s highest courts.
“My son was not privileged he wouldn’t have been able to say oh well I know this family right here so since I know this family will you let them free,” Lauire Bey said
We reached out to current Governor Mike Parson, and a spokesperson said that he has not decided, but he is considering the clemency petition filed on the ex-detective’s behalf.
As for Cameron Lamb’s family, they believe the least they could have gotten was an apology and that, still to this day, has not happened.
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