A public killing, a mother’s pain

A public killing, a mother’s pain

Khanita Maston, the mother of the man who killed Cincinnati Police Officer Sonny Kim in an ambush before another officer fatally shot him, sat on her front porch Sunday morning, her dog Blue at her side, a smoke in her hand.

She is a grieving mother, at one point collapsing in tears when talking about never being able to see her son again.

But she’s also witness No. 1, a woman who tried to stop the ambush as it unfolded and the citizen who was with Officer Kim as he lay dying, telling him to “just hold on.”

“I understand what happened,” she said. “I know what my son did was wrong. But I am a mother.”

She wants people to know, this was out of character and nobody who knows Trepierre Hummons saw this coming.

As police have already reported, Hummons, who lived with his mother in her Madisonville house, fought with his girlfriend in the wee hours of Friday morning. A woman, who police are not identifying, filed a sex assault complaint against Hummons.

Before he went to bed, at about 2 a.m. or 3 a.m., Hummons asked his mother: “How am I supposed to live the rest of my life as a sex offender when I didn’t even do nothing wrong.”

Hummons woke up before Maston; they bumped into each other in the hall.

Hummons: “I love you mom.”

Maston: “I love you more.”

Hummons: “I don’t think so.”

Maston: “How much do you love me?”

Hummons: “I love you more than oodles of noodles.”

Hummons said he was going to sit on the porch.

But when Maston went outside to walk to the dog, he wasn’t there.

What she didn’t know: He had posted a cryptic Face book message at 8:55 a.m., “I love every last one of y’all to whoever has been in my life ... you’re the real MVP.”

And then minutes later he sent a text to several friends, saying, “I really love you and thank you for all you’ve ever done for me.” 

On the walk, as she reached Roe and Whetsel, she spotted Hummons. But she was taken aback. He was drinking from a “jug,” smoking a Black and Mild.

“This don’t look good, what are you doing?” she asked.

“Have a drink with me,” he encouraged.

No, no, let’s go home, she told him. She loosely linked her arm through his.

At that point, she says a probation officer pulled up, one who works in Madisonville, someone they both know.

The Enquirer is unsure about this man’s name, and from police accounts it’s unclear when he arrived on the scene.

Maston said the probation officer encouraged Hummons to go on home.

What is clear is that before he saw his mother and maybe the officer, Hummons made two calls to 911. “Someone’s walking around belligerent with a gun,” Hummons told a dispatch officer on his first call.

The second call came from the corner Roe and Whetsel. “I just called about a guy with a gun... Please get to Roe and Whetsel as soon as possible.”

As Officer Kim pulled up, Hummons let go of his mother’s arm, handed her his wallet, and beckoned to Kim, waving him over with two hands. And then Hummons pulled out a gun.

Maston said Kim warned her son to put the gun down or he was going to be shot.

“Tre said ‘shoot me,’ ” Maston said.

Kim fired. Hummons fired.

Kim fell, then Hummons ran and jumped on the officer. Maston pulled him off.

“I think he was gone at that point, he was not my son at that point,” Maston said.

Officer Tom Sandmann pulled up, boxed them in and fatally shot Hummons.

Maston said she called for help on Kim’s radio. They Enquirer could not corroborate that claim Sunday.

Paramedics arrived on the scene in seconds.

“I want people to know it was me who called for help for the officer,” she said. “Even though it was my son, I called for help.”