APD still studying video, talking to witnesses in beating death
By DON FLETCHER
News Staff Writer
Atmore police investigators were still interviewing witnesses and going over video footage this week to determine who took part in the August 5 beating that led to the death of a Baldwin County man who struck and killed a local woman with his car.
Police Chief Chuck Brooks said this week that those determined to have taken part in the fatal beating would be charged with murder.
APD detectives are expected to complete their investigation in the near future and obtain arrest warrants for more than one of the “several persons” police said attacked 45-year-old Kenneth Elbert Harrison in the parking lot of The Tavern of Atmore.
Until such time, though, authorities remain tight-lipped.
“When we have an update, we will release one,” said APD Sgt. Darrell McMann in an emailed response to questions about the progress of the police investigation, which is now in its second week.
Hannah Annette Martin of Poarch died from injuries she suffered when Harrison topped the hill just west of the local bar in a 2005 Chevrolet Tahoe and struck her just a few minutes before midnight as she was crossing the highway. According to The Tavern’s website, the bar closes at midnight every day except Saturdays and Sundays, when it is open until 2 a.m.
According to witnesses and police reports, Harrison got out of his car to see if he could help the 24-year-old woman. Several people who were in the bar’s parking lot have proclaimed on social media sites that when he did, he was beaten with fists and a pool cue.
The badly battered man was flown by medical evacuation helicopter to an area trauma center, where he lingered most of four days — on a ventilator, with a brain bleed — before dying last Wednesday, August 9.
Martin, who was an employee of Poarch Creek Indians at the time of her death and was a server at David’s Catfish House for several years, was laid to rest Monday, August 14, at Judson Creek Indian Cemetery following a funeral service at McCullough Christian Center. (A full obituary is published on Page 3A of this edition.)
Alabama State Troopers, who are investigating the circumstances surrounding Martin’s passing, have not released any new information since shortly after the pedestrian death.
Two “no parking” signs have been placed on the northern U.S. 31 right-of-way where several cars and trucks, including the one in which Martin arrived, were reportedly parked due to an overflow crowd at the local watering hole.
Alabama Department of Transportation officials reportedly ordered the signs erected as a means of preventing any further occurrences like the one that has now cost two lives.