04-02-2011, 02:06 PM
HE LOST HIS JOB?? i would never patronize that business if i lived there!
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Richard "Joey" Leake, 21, had a chemical sprayed in his eyes when he attempted to aid Summer Inman.
HAYDENVILLE, Ohio - As the oldest of four children, Richard Leake is used to standing up for people.
So when he heard a woman's desperate screams as he walked down a Logan alley late on the night of March 22, he knew he had to do something.
"It sounded like she was getting her arm cut off," said Leake, 21, who is known as Joey to his friends and family.
The first thing that Leake saw next to the Century National Bank was a white vehicle that looked like a police car. He then saw two men dressed in black, who he figured were police officers.
But as he got closer, he noticed that there was a woman curled in a ball beneath the open car door, attempting to fend off the men.
As 25-year-old Summer Inman continued to scream, Leake realized these men weren't police: He saw that they wore ski masks and that they were shocking her with a stun gun.
"They held it on her," Leake said. "You can't forget something like that ... the way they were Tazing her."
Leake moved quickly in an attempt to help. He said he got about a foot from the car when the woman driving the car - he said she was a bleached blonde - cried out to warn the men that he was coming up behind them.
That's when the taller of the two men turned around and blinded Leake with a chemical spray.
"They pepper-sprayed me and then my vision went blank," said Leake, who then ran for his own safety. He said he ran into a woman walking toward him and told her what was happening, and they called police.
It was the last time anyone would see Summer Inman alive.
Summer's estranged husband, William A. Inman II, 26, and his parents, William A. Inman, 47, and Sandra Inman, 46, are charged in her kidnapping and are being held in lieu of $1 million bond each.
More charges are expected in connection with Summer's death. Her body was discovered on Tuesday, bound with plastic ties in the septic tank of an Athens County church. She had been strangled.
Authorities say Sandra Inman revealed the location of the body as part of a plea deal. The Faith Tabernacle Church, nestled alongside Rt. 33 just north of Nelsonville, was familiar to the Inmans, who had attended the church and been married there.
Authorities say Summer and William Inman II were fighting over custody of their three small children, who are now living with Summer's parents.
The crime-scene tape at the church has been taken down, but remembrances of Summer remain around the building, and in her hometown of Logan.
The churchyard has become a makeshift memorial to the slain mother. Balloons, flowers and notes line the ground near the church's entrance. Similar memorials are scattered throughout Logan, where yellow, purple and green ribbons still are tied to trees, street signs and telephone posts of that Hocking County town.
"You don't ever think you would see something like that in a small town like this," said Leake, who lives in Haydenville, just south of Logan. "It bothers me; I should have done something else."
Leake's mother was more than a little shaken after hearing of her son's attempt to help Summer.
"What if they had a gun? They could have shot him," said Misti Leake, 37, who said she was in bed when her oldest son came home at almost 3 a.m. March 23 with his left eye nearly swollen shut.
"He's always been the one to stick up for people," she said.
But attempting to help cost Joey Leake more than a swollen eye. After staying at the Hocking County sheriff's office until the early morning hours that day, he overslept and missed work, causing him to be fired from his job at Saw Miller Inc., a hardwood-packaging outlet that's only a few hundred feet from his front door.
"They said, 'No call, no show' and fired him on the spot," Misti Leake said. "I don't think they knew the full extent of what happened at the time."
Joey, who has worked at the hardwood warehouse for four years, cut his former employer some slack. He had missed two days of work the previous week, he said, so the third day was the clincher.
Despite that, Joey Leake said the only thing he'd change about the night of March 22, if he could, is he'd try to do more to save Summer Inman.
"I've heard people say that I should have done more, and I've heard people say that I did what I could do. In a way it's both," he said. "I wish I could have did more for her, but I did what I could do.
"I'm only human. I did what I could."
![[Image: inman02-art0-gbnc68ln-1inman-memorial1-l...-large.jpg]](http://www.dispatch.com/live/export-content/sites/dispatch/local_news/stories/2011/04/02/inman02-art0-gbnc68ln-1inman-memorial1-large-jpg-large.jpg)
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Richard "Joey" Leake, 21, had a chemical sprayed in his eyes when he attempted to aid Summer Inman.
HAYDENVILLE, Ohio - As the oldest of four children, Richard Leake is used to standing up for people.
So when he heard a woman's desperate screams as he walked down a Logan alley late on the night of March 22, he knew he had to do something.
"It sounded like she was getting her arm cut off," said Leake, 21, who is known as Joey to his friends and family.
The first thing that Leake saw next to the Century National Bank was a white vehicle that looked like a police car. He then saw two men dressed in black, who he figured were police officers.
But as he got closer, he noticed that there was a woman curled in a ball beneath the open car door, attempting to fend off the men.
As 25-year-old Summer Inman continued to scream, Leake realized these men weren't police: He saw that they wore ski masks and that they were shocking her with a stun gun.
"They held it on her," Leake said. "You can't forget something like that ... the way they were Tazing her."
Leake moved quickly in an attempt to help. He said he got about a foot from the car when the woman driving the car - he said she was a bleached blonde - cried out to warn the men that he was coming up behind them.
That's when the taller of the two men turned around and blinded Leake with a chemical spray.
"They pepper-sprayed me and then my vision went blank," said Leake, who then ran for his own safety. He said he ran into a woman walking toward him and told her what was happening, and they called police.
It was the last time anyone would see Summer Inman alive.
Summer's estranged husband, William A. Inman II, 26, and his parents, William A. Inman, 47, and Sandra Inman, 46, are charged in her kidnapping and are being held in lieu of $1 million bond each.
More charges are expected in connection with Summer's death. Her body was discovered on Tuesday, bound with plastic ties in the septic tank of an Athens County church. She had been strangled.
Authorities say Sandra Inman revealed the location of the body as part of a plea deal. The Faith Tabernacle Church, nestled alongside Rt. 33 just north of Nelsonville, was familiar to the Inmans, who had attended the church and been married there.
Authorities say Summer and William Inman II were fighting over custody of their three small children, who are now living with Summer's parents.
The crime-scene tape at the church has been taken down, but remembrances of Summer remain around the building, and in her hometown of Logan.
The churchyard has become a makeshift memorial to the slain mother. Balloons, flowers and notes line the ground near the church's entrance. Similar memorials are scattered throughout Logan, where yellow, purple and green ribbons still are tied to trees, street signs and telephone posts of that Hocking County town.
"You don't ever think you would see something like that in a small town like this," said Leake, who lives in Haydenville, just south of Logan. "It bothers me; I should have done something else."
Leake's mother was more than a little shaken after hearing of her son's attempt to help Summer.
"What if they had a gun? They could have shot him," said Misti Leake, 37, who said she was in bed when her oldest son came home at almost 3 a.m. March 23 with his left eye nearly swollen shut.
"He's always been the one to stick up for people," she said.
But attempting to help cost Joey Leake more than a swollen eye. After staying at the Hocking County sheriff's office until the early morning hours that day, he overslept and missed work, causing him to be fired from his job at Saw Miller Inc., a hardwood-packaging outlet that's only a few hundred feet from his front door.
"They said, 'No call, no show' and fired him on the spot," Misti Leake said. "I don't think they knew the full extent of what happened at the time."
Joey, who has worked at the hardwood warehouse for four years, cut his former employer some slack. He had missed two days of work the previous week, he said, so the third day was the clincher.
Despite that, Joey Leake said the only thing he'd change about the night of March 22, if he could, is he'd try to do more to save Summer Inman.
"I've heard people say that I should have done more, and I've heard people say that I did what I could do. In a way it's both," he said. "I wish I could have did more for her, but I did what I could do.
"I'm only human. I did what I could."