Pictures of a blood-spattered, bullet-riddled car have raised new questions about what happened between federal agents and a 24-year-old Southeast man during a July 5 high-speed chase and shoot out on Interstate 395 and Glebe Road in Arlington.
According to the official account of the event, Travis Lamar Hampton sideswiped an unmarked sport utility vehicle in which three agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were riding.
The agents — in town for training before being deployed to Iraq and wearing civilian clothes — engaged in a high-speed chase of Hampton, eventually confronting him on the Glebe Road exit ramp. The police said the two sides exchanged bullets, setting off a gun battle that ended on the 3200 block of 13th Street in Arlington. Hampton stormed a house there, shot and wounded a tenant, then engaged in a standoff with Arlington and Alexandria police. Police said that they later entered the house and found Hampton dead from an apparent gunshot wound. Police later told The Examiner that Hampton had killed himself.
Arlington police spokesman John Lisle said the investigation into the shootout and standoff is ongoing. He said he expects to the final report to be sent to the commonwealth attorney in two weeks.
Hampton’s sister Tonya Kirby said she has yet to receive an autopsy report and is not getting enough answers from investigators.
“There’s too many loopholes” in the official account, she said.
Hampton’s only prior encounter with police was an arrest for marijuana possession. He served 30 days in a Virginia prison in 2002.
The only injury to Hampton acknowledged by officials is the self-inflicted gunshot wound. A copy of Hampton’s July 17 death certificate obtained by The Examiner confirms this injury, though the certificate list the cause of death as “pending” instead of “suicide,” which was listed as an option on the form. Sean Cummings, director of the funeral home that prepared Hampton’s body for burial, said Hampton’s body showed evidence of multiple injuries. He said Hampton’s left leg was bruised, and his his left shin gashed on the front and back.
“It looked like someone had hit him to knock him down,” he said, describing Hampton as a large man, standing 5’10 and weighing “about 260” pounds. “It looks like someone had clubbed him.”
Cummings also described an injury he called an “open wound” and “gash” on Hampton’s right shoulder and neck. It appears in the car pictures as if the right side of his shoulder and neck would have been near a bullet hole in the headrest.
Cummings added he does not remember an exit wound from the suicide shot. According to his death certificate, Hampton shot himself in the mouth.
Kirby said she noticed the wound on the right side of her brother’s neck during the open-casket viewing. Hampton’s fiancee, Ebony Luckett, said she also noticed the wound.
Pictures of the gold Ford Taurus driven by Hampton seem to indicate he was injured while driving.
The photographs, taken by Luckett in the Arlington impound lot, show what appears to be two bullet holes in the headrest and a steering wheel covered in blood. Near what appears to be a bullet exit hole in the windshield, more blood is splattered. Blood is also on the dashboard and the door.
The car’s back window is shattered and the trunk appears to have three bullet holes.
It is not clear where the car is right now. Arlington police spokesman Lisle said Luckett, who owns the car, was given the opportunity to claim it without charge. He said she did not claim the car, so it was sent to the lot of A-1 Towing in Arlington.
“We had completed all the evidence collection we had to do,” Lisle said. It was released to A-1 “with the consent of the commonwealth attorney.”
Calls to the manager of A-1 to confirm the whereabouts of the car were not returned. Luckett said she was told by the towing company the car was likely sent to a junkyard and destroyed.
ATF spokesman Rich Morianos said he was confident the agents acted properly. He said shots were exchanged, but Hampton fired first.
