Murder victim’s daughter cries as video shows suspect shot

KENTWOOD, Mich. (WOOD) – Kamri Jones has been mourning the death of her mother for the past two months. But as she watched the last moments of the accused murderer’s life, she couldn’t help but cry.

“I see videos all the time of crimes, but it’s different when you know the person. And that person just happened to be the person that killed my mom,” Jones said.

Police say 43-year-old Lamont Gulley stabbed Casey Kempker, his wife and Jones’ mother, 15 times. Police video released Tuesday shows Gulley on the ground and police can be heard ordering him to drop his knife before shooting him twice. The county prosecutor has ruled officers were justified in using deadly force.

“From the video, it seemed like they gave him chances and I didn’t know about that until today,” Jones said. “Like, I kept hearing them say, ‘Tase him,’ and I don’t know, he kept on pushing through it.”

Tuesday was the first time she had seen the video.

Jones, 19, was suddenly forced to run a household when her mother was murdered on April 8. The following day, Jones had to clean up the murder scene at the Kentwood apartment her mother and Gulley shared, spending hours scrubbing blood out of the carpet and walls.

Jones said her mother taught her at a young age to be strong and independent. She jumped into the role of motherhood, now raising her two little brothers, one of whom has autism.

“I know that she would definitely be proud of me and that’s really important to me,” she said.

Despite the trauma of losing her mother and the new responsibility of being a mother to her brothers, Jones said she doesn’t hate Gulley.

“You would think that I would hate him, but he’s still human and I saw the effort of him trying to get it together,” Jones said.

Jones said she’s focused on her two younger brothers and starting college in the fall. There is a GoFundMe account to help her and her family.