Police technology helps capture murder suspect

By Randy Bell

When Clinton police got permission to buy their first drones just over a year ago, Chief Ford Hayman told the Board of Aldermen the technology would be used “to help us carry out our mission.” And the investment has paid off.

As a young murder suspect was on the run following a shooting on Hathaway Drive on March 21, Clinton Police Department (CPD) deployed a drone to locate and track him as he made his way through a neighborhood not far from a church day care center.

“That drone was able to get in the air, and we found him,” Hayman says. “It’s a bird’s-eye view. You cover so much more ground effectively and quickly.”

Drone video shows officers taking Cutlas Armoni Frazier, 17, into custody with the gun believed to have been used in the murder of Corderius Webster, 19, visible on the ground.

The chief says his officers train with the drones every couple of weeks.

“They’re learning as they go, and we’re only getting better at it. And the better we get, I think we’ll find more and more uses.”

Mayor Phil Fisher says when Hayman first requested the drones, there may have been some initial skepticism.

“People were kind of chuckling about it, saying ‘what’s the big deal?’ But you could see what it could be and what might happen.”

Fisher says the most important benefit of the drones is increasing the level of safety for Clinton police. Had an officer been injured during the chase, help would have been on the way instantly.

“We would have known right then,” the mayor says. “Somebody with the drones could have called it in.”

Frazier had his initial court appearance March 22, and his bond was set at $1 million. This is the first homicide in the city this year.

The city had only one homicide last year and two in 2021. There were no homicides in Clinton in 2020, but the City recorded five in 2019, all of them in a single incident of domestic violence in which a man killed two family members and two friends before he also suffered fatal injuries. From 2012 to 2018, Clinton saw a total of four homicides.

“The Clinton Police Department is committed to safeguarding our community,” Hayman says. “We will continue to work hard to deter, prevent or steer crime away from the city of Clinton and investigate, arrest and prosecute criminals to the fullest extent of the law. Our crime numbers prove that Clinton is a safe city and that our citizens rarely encounter violent criminal acts.”