Brandi Stewart is left with grief and questions after she found out her daughter was killed in an officer involved shooting. She holds a school photo of her daughter, 19-year-old Samantha Ramsey.
"When I was initially told she hit an officer, I can't fathom that idea because she wasn't perfect by any means, but she knew right from wrong," said Brandi Stewart, speaking about her daughter, Samantha Ramsey.
Ramsey died at Saint Elizabeth Medical Center in Florence Saturday after being shot four times by a Boone County Sheriff's deputy in the 6000 block of River Road near Hebron, Ky.
Boone County Sheriff's spokesperson Tom Scheben said deputy Tyler Brockman, 28, shot Ramsey after she accelerated her vehicle and struck him during a traffic stop outside a nearby field party.
The impact with Ramsey's car flipped Brockman onto its hood and injured his leg, Scheben said at the scene of the incident.
Brockman had exited his cruiser to administer field sobriety tests at the time, according to the sheriff's department.
One of three passengers in Ramsey's vehicle described the exchange from his perspective.
"We saw three cars, so we thought we could go pass," said Bobby Turner, who was the backseat passenger behind Ramsey when she was shot. "The officer was talking to somebody else. We was listening to music in the car. We didn't know the police was talking to us. I didn't hear him. I just saw him jump on the hood and start shooting. I didn't see him withdraw his gun, that's how quick it was."
A witness to the incident confirmed the confrontation happened within seconds.
From his perspective across the street, Josh Pitts of Covington said it appeared the deputy leapt onto the vehicle.
"As she was trying to make a turn and leave the party, he jumped on the car and pulled his gun out and shot four times through the window and hit the girl," he said.
It appeared Ramsey might have panicked during the confrontation, Pitts added.
After shots were fired, Ramsey's vehicle was put in reverse and ended up in a ditch, Scheben said.
A few hours later, doctors told Stewart her daughter was shot twice in the chest, and one time in one arm and once in a wrist.
The family of 19-year-old Samantha Ramsey provided this photo of the Covington resident who died in an officer-involved shooting near Hebron, Ky. Saturday.
"All I know is my daughter would never attempt to hurt a police officer...ever."
Ramsey was a 2013 cheerleader and graduate from Holmes High School in Covington. Her father had died unexpectedly last year, Stewart said.
As a mother all Stewart said she wanted was concrete answers as to what happened at 2 a.m. Saturday night on River Road.
"He (the deputy) has a job to do and I respect that," she said. "It's a very difficult job. But...he knows what happened and I want to know what happened. That's all I want to know and as a mother I deserve to know. I'm not seeking vengeance or justice, I just want to know what happened to my daughter."
Brockman was placed on administrative leave as the investigation into the incident continues.
Scheben said the deputy was heading to a call of a crash on River Road when he came across a man walking drunk on the side of the narrow rural state route.
It was that man who told Brockman about the field party and led the deputy to investigate the scene.
Saturday's incident is the second officer-involved shooting death to occur in Northern Kentucky in two weeks.
On Saturday, April 12, Gallatin County Sheriff's deputy Edwin Caldwell was confronted by a man brandishing a weapon in the 6600 block of Kentucky Route 16 after Caldwell responded to a domestic disturbance.
Caldwell fired on Gary Burdine, 41, in self defense after Burdine made verbal threats, according to Kentucky State Police officers who investigated that incident.
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