This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2007, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
OGDEN - A screenwriter would have a tough time coming up with a character more inclined to act like a hero.
Ken Hammond, the off-duty Ogden police officer who kept the Trolley Square shooter engaged in a gunbattle Feb. 12, not only was in the right place at the right time - limiting the victim casualty count to five dead and four wounded - but he also had the right stuff:
Confidence. A sharp sense of right and wrong. A passion for excitement.
"It's just him," said his mother, Diana Hammond, of Lake Havasu, Ariz. "He's done the same [kind of] thing for as long as I can remember."
Hammond said he would not have been able to live with himself if, instead of taking on the shooter, he had retreated to Rodizio Grill, where he and his pregnant wife had just finished dessert.
The 33-year-old cop put it this way to a group of Ogden fourth-graders: "Police officers, we kind of have a weird mind."
"I probably could no longer be an officer if I couldn't help."
Chasing shoplifters
Hammond was born and reared in Fontana, Calif., a city of more than 150,000 near San Bernardino.
His father, Keith Hammond, worked as a painter for the school district. His mother was a hairstylist. He racked up good grades and excelled in soccer (goalie) and baseball (third and first base). He was too big to play football against kids his age until junior high and, the two years he played, he didn't much like the sport.
Hammond doesn't remember not working.
At 15, he spent the summer prepping mobile homes for sale. Next he worked for a Little Caesars Pizza, an Italian restaurant and for Coco's, a chain of family restaurants.
It was there he first showed the inclination to act rather than watch.
A couple had swiped a carafe, and the manager told Hammond to get it back. He chased the thieves to the parking lot, recalled his mother, still perturbed that the boss would ask that of her son. She doesn't recall whether he returned with the cheap glass jug.
Another time, a heavy-set woman was choking, and the Heimlich maneuver wasn't working. So Hammond, still a teenager, tried it himself. This time, the woman spat out the food, said Hammond's younger brother, Charles, a computer administrator for Earthlink who lives in California.
"He might have broken a couple of her ribs in the process," said Charles Hammond, 28. "He's definitely not one to sit still for anything."
As a teen, Hammond showed interest in police work and spent time riding in the patrol car with an older cousin, who was an officer. He also took criminal justice classes at a community college after high school.
But it would be a few years before he acted on his law enforcement interest.
Hammond came to Utah to live with a cousin based at Hill Air Force Base. After a few months, he found a place of his own and worked at an Ogden Smith's, stocking shelves.
He worked for the chain for close to eight years, rising to grocery manager. He became known among co-workers as the one who would chase beer thieves, tackling them in the parking lot when necessary.
"It wasn't very safe. It was stupid," said Hammond, tall and dark with close-cropped hair.
His roommate was attending the police academy in the Salt Lake Valley and Hammond - mindful of the number of times he had been told, "You look like a cop" - opted to give law enforcement a try.
He graduated from the academy and worked a year as a Weber County jailer before joining the Ogden Police Department in 2000.
"It was pretty much, 'What took you so long?' " said his brother, Charles.
The buzz on the beat
The hook of police work, Hammond said, is the excitement.
"They call your name on the radio and you never know what it's going to be. It's the old cliche: 'No two calls are the same.' "
Hammond logged more than five years as a patrol officer and now is a traffic officer.
Charles said his older brother has skills that make him a good cop.
"He has a way of seeing all sides of the story and calming everybody down and finding the truth and doing what's right," Charles said. "He's a great negotiator."
He also can keep his head, a trait in evidence Feb. 12 at Trolley Square.
"He didn't go with gun blazing and all adrenaline. He was calculated and precise in his actions and very calm," Charles said. "That's probably what saved his life."
Hammond returned to Rodizio Grill five days later for lunch with some 20 Ogden cops - after he was honored with the Salt Lake City officers at the Capitol - and walked around Trolley Square. It helped him make some sense of the experience.
"It seemed a lot smaller than I remember," he said.
Posts on blogs have criticized Hammond for posing for photos so soon after the shooting spree, but the officer said he was only responding to requests from passers-by.
"What was I supposed to do? Say no?"
He said he signed no autographs.
Hammond, with his pregnant wife, Sarita, and 3-year-old son, Braxton (from a previous marriage) has been visiting survivors because he has found it's a respectful way to treat those brushed by tragedy. Three years ago, a widow, whose husband died in a helicopter crash, came to Hammond's home, desiring every detail of how her husband died.
"It helped her with closure," Hammond said. "If they ask, I will give an honest answer."
Hammond seems to be working through the experience by talking about it, visiting classes, opening up to reporters. He doesn't reject the "hero" accolade, but talks about that night's other heroes: the Salt Lake City officers and survivors who still are fighting.
He said he spent a few days thinking about "what-ifs."
"The one what-if I'm not asking myself is: What if I wouldn't have had my gun?"
Now, he does not leave home without it. "I don't know if it's paranoid or just being realistic."
Ken Hammond
* Age: 33
* Background: Born and raised in Fontana, Calif. Came to Utah in 1993 to live with a cousin.
* Occupation: Employed as Ogden police officer since 2000; previously a grocery manager.
* Family: Lives in Ogden with wife, Sarita, and shares custody of his 3-year-old son, Braxton, with his former wife.