Posted on 02/17/2004 1:12:33 PM PST by Puppage
MALONE, N.Y. -- Loved ones of a man who froze to death after fleeing from police Saturday say police shouldn't have chased him through snow and into the woods in below zero temperatures.
State police told the Press Republican of Plattsburgh that Kevin D'Amour, 28, of Owls Head, was with a group of friends when they tried to approach him with an arrest warrant for violating probation. Owls Head is about 145 miles north of Albany.
They said D'Amour -- who was on probation for a misdemeanor petit larceny charge -- went into the woods and to his mother's house. Police said that by the time they reached the house, D'Amour was back in the woods, hiding.
Friends and family members said they searched for D'Amour hours later because he hadn't returned. They called police and reported D'Amour missing around 11 a.m., Sunday, the newspaper reported.
Police, rangers and volunteers searched the area and found D'Amour's body almost four hours later, about two miles from his mother's house.
Police said D'Amour was wearing jeans, a coat and boots -- not enough to survive temperatures that plunged to 25-below zero. They said there was evidence he had tried to build a fire.
D'Amour's girlfriend Shari Esser blames police for chasing the young man into the woods and not continuing to look for him because it was too cold.
Police said D'Amour is the one who decided to flee and remain in the woods.
MALONE — An Owls Head man who fled into the woods Saturday to avoid arrest for a probation violation was found frozen to death Sunday less than two miles from his mother’s home.
Kevin M. D’Amour, 28, was found at 2:45 p.m., about three hours after his mother, Holly Lapoint, reported him missing.
"D’Amour spent the night in the woods in temperatures that were well below zero and was not properly attired to withstand the extreme cold," Malone-based State Police said Monday in a news release.
State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation Investigator Miranda LaBrake said the temperature was well below zero Saturday night.
"He was wearing jeans, a coat and boots, but definitely not enough protection for 25-below weather," she said. "And he was out there for hours."
Foul play is not suspected. An autopsy has been ordered to learn the exact cause of death.BLAMES POLICE
But no answers will be good enough for D’Amour’s long-time girlfriend, Shari Esser.
"They (State Police) had a warrant for his arrest, and they knew he was a runner," she said. "He was a good kid who had only a misdemeanor, but they came here with dogs and ran him into the woods.
"They got in their cars and drove up and down the road, waiting for him to come out," she said. "They were the ones who chased him into the woods, but they wouldn’t go and find him.
"They are responsible for his death," Esser said. "They should have kept looking for him. They had every intention of chasing him — they brought the dogs — so why didn’t they go in and get him? Because the snow was too deep, and it was too cold.
"They were treating him like a serial killer, chasing him down until they got what they wanted. They killed him," Esser said.REPORTED MISSING SUNDAY
State Police Lt. Charles Potthast said he understands the family is upset, but it was D’Amour who made the decision to flee.
"He hadn’t even been identified by troopers yet when he slipped into the woods," Potthast said. "He went right to his mother’s trailer; he came and went, but they never had a visual on him.
"And nobody reported him as missing until 11 the next day," he said, adding that, as far as police knew, D’Amour was hiding out to avoid arrest.
"It’s a tragic incident, but he made the decision to try to elude us, and there was an unfortunate outcome," Potthast said.AVOIDED TROOPERS
D’Amour was originally arrested for petit larceny. He was wanted on a warrant from Duane Town Court for allegedly violating the probation he was serving for that charge.
Troopers said D’Amour was among a group of men talking together on Webber Road Saturday afternoon as they approached.
Upon seeing the officers, D’Amour slipped into the woods and went to his mother’s home on Webber Road.
But before troopers could get there to make the arrest, D’Amour had gone back into the woods and disappeared.
Troopers spoke to family members at the mobile home, who said they didn’t know where D’Amour went.
When he didn’t return home after several more hours, family and friends looked for him Saturday night and into Sunday morning.
Mrs. Lapoint called the State Police barracks in Malone about 11 a.m. Sunday to say her son had still not turned up, which brought the troopers, State Department of Environmental Conservation forest rangers and volunteers from the Owls Head-Mountain View Fire Department out to conduct another search.
Police said D’Amour’s frozen body was found about 2:45 p.m. near Old Pond Road about two miles from his mother’s home.‘IT’S LONELY’
Esser was there when police found her boyfriend’s body. She said there was evidence he tried to build a fire.
She and Kevin had known each other since they were 13; they had been a couple for the last 4½ years.
"He really enjoyed fishing and hunting and canoeing," she said. "He just loved being outdoors."
D’Amour had worked as a woodcutter but was unemployed at the time of his death, she said.
He grew up in Malone, attending local schools, and had a daughter, Katlynn D’Amour, and several siblings.
"It’s lonely. I drive up and down the road, and now there is nobody sitting in the passenger seat," Esser said, beginning to cry.
"He was so young. We were so young. We had our whole lives ahead of us."
Tough guys but not tough enough for that weather.
Upstate New York has cute terms for these little crimes...
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