According to the authorities and a close friend of the victim, a competitive bodybuilder who was killed in front of the couple’s toddler while proselytizing was shot dead. The victim’s wife had competed in the Miss America pageant at one point in her life.
According to an affidavit that was obtained by The Daily Beast, Thomas Hand Jr., who was 37 years old and the husband of former Miss Mississippi Christine Kozlowski Hand, 33, was “shot to death…in the presence of the victim’s two-year-old child.” Christine Kozlowski Hand was the victim. According to the report, the shooting took place on a street in Montgomery, Alabama, on Saturday afternoon, and a doctor from Jackson Hospital pronounced Hand dead at the scene at 4:37 o’clock in the afternoon.
According to the document, Jerimiah Walker, who is 17 years old, was detained and charged with capital murder in the presence of a child younger than 14 years old. The document also states that the incident took place just a few steps away from Walker’s residence. At the Montgomery County jail, Walker is being held without the possibility of bond. The police have not made any possible motives for the crime known to the public at this time.
Luke Lemus, a longtime friend of Hand’s, told The Daily Beast on Wednesday that Hand “was independently evangelizing door-to-door and he had recently moved to Montgomery… to start his new life with his wife and kids.” “He had recently moved to Montgomery… to start his new life with his wife and kids,” Lemus said.
Court of District Judges for Montgomery County
A few years ago, Hand, who had previously lived in Louisiana and managed a business that sold nutritional supplements, made his first steps into the religious world. According to his friends, he and his wife would frequently spend the Saturdays of their lives preaching in neighborhoods with low incomes. Kozlowski Hand is currently carrying the couple’s second child, who is anticipated to be born in the month of August.
Lemus, who was 48 years old and had trained with Hand, stated that he was too distraught to go into too much detail about the passing of Hand.
Lemus characterized his current emotional state as “kind of heartbroken” “It’s difficult…difficult it’s for the family,” she said.
According to Captain Saba Coleman, a spokeswoman for the Montgomery Police Department, “there is no additional information available for release regarding this ongoing investigation.” This information was provided to The Daily Beast.
According to the Daily Mail, Hand and Kozlowski first met at the gym, and the publication reported that the couple had recently celebrated their sixth wedding anniversary. In an interview with the Mail, Kozlowski Hand referred to the shooting incident as “a totally senseless act of violence.”
In 2014, Kozlowski rose to internet fame after her then-boyfriend proposed to her during a performance by the band One Direction. The divorce was finalized less than a year after the couple first connected on Tinder.
In a post that Kozlowski Hand made on Facebook on Sunday, in which she confirmed her husband’s passing and extended her condolences to “all of his loyal and cherished customers at Hand Nutrition,” she also reassured those customers that “the company will continue to serve you guys and we ask that you stick with us as this will be our only means of support for our son and baby to be.” Kozlowski Hand was pregnant at the time of her husband’s passing. Now, more than ever, we are going to need your support. The company will move to Biloxi, Mississippi, which is where I grew up because we love you guys so much. The orders placed over the weekend will be processed and shipped on Monday as usual.
The District Attorney for Montgomery County, Daryl D. Bailey, as well as the Deputy District Attorney for Montgomery County, Michael Scott Green, who is currently prosecuting the case, did not respond to a request for comment. According to the documents filed with the court, Walker does not have a lawyer representing him.
In an interview with the local affiliate of NBC, WFSA, Bailey was quoted as saying, “We’ve got to start sending messages that this behavior is not tolerated.” This statement gave the impression that Bailey was losing his patience with the rising crime rate in Montgomery.
