ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ

ST. LOUIS — The van parked down the street from the small home on South Kingshighway.

A group of SWAT officers got out, lined up behind one with a shield, and slipped through front yards to the brick bungalow’s porch.

There, they drove a ram through the door, threw flash-bang grenades inside and rushed into the living room.

Gunfire exploded around them, they later testified. Bullets ripped through a bedroom door. The officers fired back, dozens of rounds.

The team moved left, away from the bullets. The house went silent. Officers started to reload.

Then a man stepped out of a back room.

Police said he had an AK-47-style rifle in his hands.

The SWAT team opened fire.

Isaiah Hammett, 21, was shot 24 times.

Police were there that summer morning in 2017 with a warrant to search for guns, marijuana and heroin. They suspected Hammett of dealing drugs, gang activity and murder.

Inside the home, officers found the rifle, two jars of marijuana, a loaded revolver in Hammett’s bed and 13 other guns, police said. All of them had been legally purchased by Hammett or his grandfather, family attorneys said. The death sparked protests in St. Louis, calls for police reform and a lawsuit from Hammett’s relatives, who disputed the cops’ account.

Last week, the civil case went to trial in federal court here. The jury on Friday found that the five members of the SWAT team accused of using excessive force were not liable for Hammett’s death.

But the hours of testimony from the trial now paint the clearest picture yet of the moments leading to Hammett’s death. SWAT officers, investigators, experts and Hammett’s family all described why police arrived at Hammett’s door that morning, why officers didn’t knock before bursting through and what they all said happened inside.

Hammett’s mother, Gina Torres, maintains her son was wrongfully killed by overly aggressive police and was the victim of a cover-up.

“Everything was out there, what they did to my son,� she said after the verdict on Friday. “And it’s pretty sad that the jury didn’t see it.�

City attorneys said police were only doing their jobs.

“The fact is,� said Deputy City Counselor Andrew Wheaton, “it happened because of Isaiah Hammett’s decisions.�

Hammett’s childhood

Hammett was born at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in 1997 when Torres was 17 years old.

He was curious and loved books and watching National Geographic on TV, Torres said.

“He was my first love,� she said in court last week.

She and her son lived for a time with Hammett’s father. It was an abusive relationship, Torres said. Eventually, the father went to prison.

Torres had three more children — two boys and one girl — over the next several years. Hammett loved his siblings and looked after them when Torres worked. He took them to school.

Hammett dropped out of high school as a teen. He became a caretaker to his grandfather, who used a wheelchair and needed help bathing, dressing and getting around.

But Hammett started getting into trouble as a juvenile, said Wheaton, the city attorney. He was arrested for stealing a car. And in 2014, he picked up charges of first-degree assault and armed criminal action.

The following year, he was charged with trespassing, Wheaton said.

Then, on May 16, 2017, Hammett legally purchased an AK-47-style weapon. Torres said her family had always had guns around the house. Her father was a Vietnam veteran and owned multiple weapons. He taught his grandson how to shoot.

Five days later, Torres said Hammett called her. He was upset. Someone shot at him. His car was riddled with bullet holes.

How officers got in

That night, police reported a 20-year-old man, Azad Saleem, had been shot and killed. A witness identified Hammett as the shooter, former St. Louis homicide Detective Gregory Klipsch testified during trial. Hammett was driving a silver sedan with bullet damage and a flat tire, which was one of the vehicles identified at the scene.

Meanwhile, another detective, Benjamin Lacy, was looking into Hammett for another set of crimes on the city’s south side. An informant had told him Hammett was involved with a local gang and selling drugs.

Lacy had applied for a search warrant, and a judge approved.

Just before 11:30 a.m. on June 7, 2017, Lacy and Klipsch met with the SWAT team assembled at a Burlington Coat Factory parking lot near the home. Klipsch told the team to be ready.

“This individual should be considered armed and dangerous,� he recalled telling them.

The officers drove to the neighborhood in a Sprinter van, then approached the home in a line through the yards nearby. All were armed.

Lacy hadn’t applied for a so-called no-knock warrant, where a judge allows officers to enter the home without first announcing themselves. But the plan changed when a surveillance camera on the front porch caught the officers’ eyes, they testified in court. ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ worried they’d be met with guns or someone inside would destroy evidence before they could get to it.

They decided right then not to knock. Instead, the officer at the front holding the ram swung it back. The SWAT team began yelling. The ram hit the door. And the officers burst through.

Hammett’s grandfather, Dennis Torres, was in bed when he heard the gunshots, he told the Post-Dispatch in 2017. Seconds later, his grandson rushed into the room and told him someone was trying to break into the house.

Hammett pulled his grandfather out of bed and onto the floor. The grandfather heard more shots, and then said he saw Hammett on the floor.

“If I could have got to a gun, I would have returned fire, too,� Dennis Torres said in the 2017 interview. “I didn’t know who was trying to break into my home.�

In a videotaped deposition played during the trial, Dennis Torres, who died last year, said he did not see his grandson carrying a gun. City attorneys said he was legally blind. His daughter said he could see just fine.

That was the crux of last week’s trial. Was Hammett armed when he emerged from his grandfather’s bedroom?

‘5 trained officers reacted’

Multiple members of the SWAT team said they spotted Hammett with his weapon raised, ready to shoot, so they returned fire.

Torres’ attorneys said that’s not what happened. They played a video of the medical examiner who conducted Hammett’s autopsy explaining how the trajectory of at least two of the bullets that struck Hammett’s arm suggested that arm was up. There were also wounds near his armpit, she said.

Also, forensics experts didn’t find any blood on his weapon despite gaping wounds in his chest and blood on his hands, and fingerprints lifted from the weapon were not Hammett’s.

Torres’ attorney, St. Louis University law school professor Susan McGraugh, said in closing arguments that Hammett came out that morning with his hands raised.

“He surrendered,� she said, “and the physical evidence in this case is completely consistent with that.�

Hammett’s family members believe police planted the gun after Hammett was shot.

But each SWAT officer testified of hearing and seeing gunshots coming from the bedroom.

Investigators found 10 shell casings in the bedroom that matched the ones used in Hammett’s rifle.

And bullet holes in the door showed bullets flying from the bedroom into the living room.

Police also said they heard a lull in the shooting, which attorneys argued was consistent with Hammett running into his grandfather’s bedroom to help him. But then all five officers fired together — lending credibility to the claim that Hammett was armed, attorneys said.

“Five trained SWAT officers reacted,� Wheaton said. “Why else would all of them decide in the same moment to fire?�

In their ruling, jurors found that Hammett was indeed carrying a gun when he appeared in front of officers.

Torres said she was shocked.

For years, she had organized protests and vigils, spoke out about police tactics and tried to keep her son’s memory alive.

Torres said Friday outside the courthouse that she was certain the jury would see the truth once it heard all the evidence. She believes her son was murdered.

“They took my life from me,� she said. “They took my baby.�