8/8/2019 ‘Unyielding courage’ marked Eric Freeman, page 2

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arrest Shipp for DUI whenShipp allegedly pulled out a pis-tol and shot Freeman in the

ead.

Lambert immediately grabbed for the gun, Reyesaid, and two bystanders helpedambert subdue him.Precinct captains and officers

lanked Reyes and Director of ublic Safety Rex Reynoldsuring a brief news conference

at the police station Saturday af-ternoon.

Despite their disciplined air,officers outside the stationslumped almost imperceptibly,

iping their red eyes.“This is yet another tragic day 

in the city of Huntsville and inthe history of the Huntsville Po-ice Department,” Reynolds

said, “that this administrationhas to come to you and describe yet another senseless killing of one of our fellow officers.”

 Another policeman of three years, Daniel Golden, was shotin August 2005 after answeringa call to a domestic dispute atJalisco, a Mexicangrocery/restaurant on Jordan

Lane. That was the first time in37 years a Huntsville officer haddied in the line of duty.

Officers still coming to terms  with Golden’s death took an-other blow when Freeman died,and the officers need time togather their thoughts, said po-lice spokesman Wendell John-son.

“We’re closing up. We’re cry-ing. We’re mourning the loss of a fellow officer,” Johnson said.“The last thing we need is tohave a reporter come in and ask,‘How do you feel?’

“We ask the media to under-stand that our officers arehuman.”

Freeman was the fourthhomicide victim during the week in Huntsville and the city’s18th homicide for the year.

Coming togetherBefore Spencer went to the

south precinct to meet with of-ficers, she stopped by Tenders!to pick up food for the men.

Throughout the day, dis-patchers notified officers of food being sent to the precincts.Some families dropped off din-ner and asked that it be takento Freeman’s family.

“The community is re-sponding in such a positivemanner,” Spencer said. “That’s

 what you appreciate.”

Police chaplains are availablefor officers who need them, saidJohnson.

Huntsville residents havelogged on to a number of on-line forums to express their sym-pathies for a man who obviously loved his work.

Madison County Sheriff’s In- vestigator Brent Patterson saidFreeman, a fellow graduate of 

Hazel Green High School, lovedto talk about his job while thetwo men waited on their chil-dren at little league footballgames.

“We chatted about how ex-cited he was about going to work for the Huntsville PoliceDepartment, and how it was alifelong dream for him,” Patter-son said.

“He was just a super, super young man.”

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HurtingContinued from page A1

How to contributeWAFF-TV, Channel 48, has

set up a fund to benefit thefamily of slain Huntsville po-lice officer William Eric Free-man. Contributions may bemade at any branch of Red-stone Federal Credit Union.

Memorial fundHuntsville police estab-

lished a fund in 2006 tobuild a fallen officers memo-rial outside the Justice and

Public Safety Complex at815 Wheeler St. Donationforms are available at thepublic safety complex or atwww.hsvcity.com/police. Formore information, call 256-564-8036.Glenn Baeske/Huntsville Times

Huntsville Police badge with black band is worn by a captain atthe press conference Saturday.

 Would negotiateon individual

 basis with firmsBy JOHN ROGERSThe Associated Press

LOS ANGELES – Faced with the indefinite suspensionof negotiations, the unionrepresenting striking Holly- wood writers told its membersSaturday it would try to dealdirectly with Hollywood stu-dios and production compa-nies, bypassing the umbrellaorganization that has beenrepresenting them.

The news was welcomed by the company that producesDavid Letterman’s “LateShow,” which said it hoped to broker a deal that would putthe talk show host and his writers back to work.

Talks broke off Dec. 7 afterthe Alliance of Motion Pictureand Television Producers, which represents the studios,insisted it would not bargainfurther unless the WritersGuild of America droppedproposals that included theauthority to unionize writerson reality shows and anima-tion projects.

Both sides in the strike,  which began Nov. 5, havesaid the central issue is com-pensation for programs,movies and other contentstreamed or downloaded overthe Internet.

“As you know, the AMPTPis currently unwilling to bar-gain with us,” the guild said ina letter delivered to its mem- bers Saturday. “The internaldynamics of the AMPTPmake it difficult for the con-glomerates to reach consensusand negotiate with us on agive-and-take basis. We be-lieve this multi-employerstructure inhibits individualcompanies from pursuingtheir self-interest in negotia-tions.”

 While saying the guild stillhoped the producers would

return to the bargaining table,the union added that it haddecided to approach produc-tion companies individually and would begin doing so onMonday.

“We want to do everythingin our power to move negoti-ations forward and end thisdevastating strike,” the guildsaid in a letter signed by chief negotiator John Bowman andothers. The union said it was

delivered to members of boththe Writers Guild of America  West and Writers Guild of  America East.

“This is merely the latest in-dication that the WGA or-ganizers are grasping forstraws and have never had acoherent strategy for engagingin serious negotiations,” al-liance spokesman Jesse Hie-stand said in a statement. “The  AMPTP may have differentcompanies with different as-sets in different businesses, butthey are all unified in one com-mon goal – to reach an agree-

ment with writers that posi-tions everyone in our indus-try for success in a rapidlychanging marketplace.”

One independent company,Letterman’s Worldwide Pants,indicated it was willing to ne-gotiate individually.

Letterman himself is amember of the WGA, as is hisshow’s executive producer,Rob Burnett.

“Worldwide Pants has al-  ways been a writer-friendlycompany,” Burnett said in astatement. “Since the begin-ning of the strike, we have ex-pressed our willingness tosign an interim agreement with the guild consistent withits positions in this dispute. We’re happy that the guild hasnow adopted an approachthat might make this possible.It is our strong desire to be back on the air with our writ-ers and we hope that will hap-pen as soon as possible.”

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Weatherly Rd.Weatherly Rd.

Lily Flagg Rd.Lily Flagg Rd.

231

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Weatherly Rd.

Southern Family Market 

Doctors offices 

Site of shooting 

Area of detail

Dulcie Teesateskie/Huntsville TimesSpecial to the Times

Police shooting suspect

Kenneth Shipp

The Associated Press

This file photo shows David Letterman during taping of “TheLate Show” Sept. 4.

 Writers union may skirt producer group