Vickie Hambrick enters the courtroom on July 2, 2021
Pool photo by Josie Norris, The Tennessean
Three years of a motherâs anguish and grief erupted in a Nashville courtroom Friday morning as Vickie Hambrick, her voice streaking out pained and furious, screamed at the former Metro police officer who killed her son Daniel on July 26, 2018, shooting him in the back as he ran away.Â
âI hate you!â she yelled before turning her attention to the judge, then the prosecutors, then back to the defendant again.Â
The previous day, District Attorney Glenn Funk informed her that he was accepting a plea offer from Andrew Delkeâs defense team. The officer â who resigned earlier in the week as part of the deal â would plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter and a sentence of three years. Delke will likely end up serving no more than a year-and-a-half in jail with good behavior, not even a year for every bullet he fired into Daniel Hambrickâs body. The deal meant he would not face a jury, or a possible conviction for first-degree murder and the 51-year sentence that comes with it. Funk later told reporters heâd accepted the deal because, were the case to proceed to trial, there was a strong possibility of a hung jury. Funk also argued that Delkeâs admission of guilt could lead to a change in the way Nashville police are instructed to operate. Delkeâs defense attorney David Raybin told reporters that he shared Funkâs belief that a hung jury was likely, and that it was the motivating factor in seeking a plea deal.