A mother has come forward claiming the 18-year-old suspect charged with murder and attempted murder of a police officer on Tuesday in Montgomery was suspected of killing her daughter and others in recent years without being questioned by police.
On Tuesday, The Montgomery Police Department (MPD) charged Rodriques Humphrey, 18, of Montgomery, with capital murder and attempted murder of a police officer. He and Trawick Smith, 18, also charged with murder, are accused of gunning down Rodriquez Harris, Jr., 24, around Noon on Tuesday on the 2600 block of Zelda Road.
Humphrey received an additional attempted murder charge for firing his AR pistol at a responding police officer.
While teen killers are all too common in Montgomery, Humphrey was instantly recognized by a Montgomery woman who first heard his name from an investigator looking into the 2022 murder of her daughter.
Patricia June has been looking for her daughter's killer since she was gunned down in front of her house in October 2022. Erica June, a mother of seven, was shot while sitting in her car after pulling into her Montgomery residence on 4th Street.
According to Patricia June, Erica's body was discovered by a number of her children, who desperately tried to stop the bleeding in her neck using napkins and paper towels in the car. Despite the children's efforts, Erica passed away.
Shortly after, Patricia discovered that investigators had identified Humphrey as a suspect. He would have been 15 at the time.
According to Patricia, even though police were told that Humphrey had confessed to murdering someone to a family member, he was never picked up or questioned by law enforcement.
"Family members allegedly sent [Humphrey] up North after the killing," Patricia June told 1819 News. "He got comfortable, he talked about it a little bit, next thing I know, he's back here. The investigator told me that she couldn't do anything about it, that they'd look into it and all that. It went just like that for a long time."
Sometime after, Patricia says investigators told her that Humphrey was a suspect in yet another murder that occurred in March 2023.
Antarrio Hubbard, 20, was shot and killed on Buford Street in Montgomery. Deandre Byers, 23, was arrested along with three other unnamed suspects, aged 15,16 and 17, according to Al(dot) com's reporting. Police did not release the names of the teen suspects, and court records for the minor suspects are also unavailable. However, Humphrey would have been 17 at the time. Court records state that Byers's case is still ongoing.
"How is he getting past the system, even as a juvenile," Patricia June continued. "They know he's affiliated with gangs. They know he's affiliated with people that do criminal activity, and you're still letting him out to do all this. I told the investigator that I'd rather he be locked up because now there's another family mourning the loss of a child."
Patricia went on to claim that Humphrey was suspected in at least two other murders but did not remember specifics.
"I'm tired of them calling these people murderers," Patricia continued. "This boy's a serial killer; that's what he should be labeled."
Patricia believes police were trepidatious about pursuing Humphrey due to his age at the time while also expressing extreme frustration with the level of attention paid to Erica's murder, which she claims has already been designated a cold case.
"I'm not the only family that's out here disappointed in how you let murderers go free to do the same thing again. Hardcore criminals go free and come right back out and do the same thing again. If they've told you once who they are, and told you twice, and told you three times, I think they're just asking you to lock them up."
"We are frustrated. I have some parents, we meet and talk about what's going on in Montgomery and how it's all about a party. We see the things that are happening in Montgomery; it is growing in a positive way, but we also see the negative side and where these resources are going. But something is just not right when someone can go out, be a suspect in three or four murders, and you can't put him in jail."
Patricia is hopeful that Humphrey's arrest on Tuesday will prevent him from killing anyone else, although she does hope for some resolution to Erica's case. However, she repeatedly bemoaned the lack of communication from investigators to her and others who similarly have friends and family whose murders remain unsolved.
"We've been waiting and listening for those calls," She said. "Even just once a month to say, 'Hey. We haven't forgotten. A lot of the parents in our group that meets together, that's how they feel; that their child's life really doesn't matter that much. Just the disrespect and the no consideration, no empathy. You can call once a month or whatever just to let these family members know. These families are still mourning. I'm still mourning. I'm going to mourn my daughter's death until I die. A lot of us parents are feeling hopeless. We really are. Right now, we're creating a bunch of serial killers, and that's exactly what they are."
Patricia still keeps Erica's three young children while the others have all grown up. Her husband passed away in 2011 from a stroke, leaving her to tend to her grandchildren alone. She also started a community baseball program to address the issues of youth violence in her community.
"We may not be able to save the ones that are out here doing what they're doing now, but we can try to save the ones that are 10, 11 or so that can be easily influenced by the environment that they live in. We can let them know there's hope beyond this community that you're in right now. I want you to dream about that and believe that you can have that. You don't have to be what you see around you."
To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email craig.monger@1819news.com.
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