Just as James Edwards’ family insisted that he is a good kid after he stood accused of gunning down Australian baseball player Chris Lane, the father of Kenan Adams-Kinard is insisting that his son is also a good kid. Adams-Kinard stands charged with 1st degree robbery and 1st degree murder. He allegedly beat an elderly military veteran to death with a flashlight.
“I hope they find out what really happened,” said Steven Kinard, whose 16-year-old son Kenan Adams-Kinard was found by police hiding in a friend’s basement early Monday and taken into custody.
“Kenan’s a good kid,” the father added. “And I just thank God that they brought him back safe.”
The younger Kinard and Demetruis Glenn, also 16, are accused of killing 88-year-old Delbert Belton in a Wednesday robbery outside the Eagles Lodge in North Spokane. Belton, who police say fought back against his attackers, was pronounced dead at Sacred Heart Medical Center.
Belton was 88, a decorated survivor of the Battle of Okinawa. He fought to keep the world free and lived a full life, only to die violently at the hands of thugs.
Mr. Kinard might want to do some soul searching.
The teen’s father, Steven Kinard, said he hadn’t talked with his son since Aug. 14, a week before the homicide. Speaking on the front stoop of his family’s home in the East Central neighborhood, Steven Kinard wondered Monday what could be done to avoid the violence.
“It was a rude awakening to me,” Steven Kinard said. “It’s telling me, damn, what could I have done for my son?”
Adams-Kinard is 16. He needed a full-time father. He didn’t have one. This particular “good kid” may be the multi-sport athlete and improving student that his father thinks he is.
Steven Kinard described the teen as a gifted multi-sport athlete and an improving student. Descriptions of the violence taking place in Belton’s sedan, which left the victim with numerous facial fractures, are out of character, Steven Kinard said.
“Kenan is no violent person at all,” he said.
But he’s also already running down the path of career criminality.
Both Glenn and Adams-Kinard had prior arrests and convictions on their records, Straub said. Adams-Kinard was serving six months probation and sentenced to 30 hours of community service stemming from a fourth-degree assault and third-degree robbery conviction in June, according to court records.
He isn’t violent, he just got caught in an assault-robbery in June that was similar to the one that brutally ended Delbert Belton’s life.
The young lad is just following in the family business.
The elder Kinard and his brother Terrence, Adams-Kinard’s uncle, have had run-ins with the law. Terrence made headlines a few years ago for appealing to a federal judge while awaiting sentencing on drug charges to spend Thanksgiving at his mother’s home. At the time, he had failed to appear for numerous court dates. But both men said it would be unfair to link Adams-Kinard with their past mistakes.
We don’t really need another trap conversation about race. We need an earnest conversation about families and generational criminality.
h/t JWF
Join the conversation as a VIP Member