You read that right.
Famed “Leave it to Beaver” star Ken Osmond is helping solve a police-involved shooting from the grave.
Loved ones of the man famously known as Eddie Haskell are using his life as a police officer in defense of a Missouri detective facing criminal charges — and his widow, Sandy Osmond, is helping lead the effort.
An unlikely series of events led to the late star’s involvement.
Ms. Osmond was first told by Christopher Lynch — the man who helped co-write a book with the late “Leave it to Beaver” star — about the case. Ken Osmond and Lynch wrote “Eddie: The Life and Times of America’s Preeminent Bad Boy,” which was published in 2014.
“It just struck a chord with me,” Lynch said, “and I thought, ‘Wow, that sounds so much like Ken’s shooting and what would have happened if Ken would have been in that boat today.'”
Osmond himself was reportedly shot five times in 1980.
When Ms. Osmond wanted to get involved, she and Lynch decided to use proceeds from the book toward the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund — an organization that pays the court costs for police officers involved in litigation they deem “outrageous.”
A Kansas City Police Detective charged in the shooting death of Cameron Lamb is getting support from an unlikely source; an iconic child actor and his family. https://t.co/2gUvz5PVWf
— FOX4 News Kansas City (@fox4kc) December 10, 2020
The Kansas City police detective Eric DeValkenaere back in June pleaded not guilty in the fatal shooting of a Black man who was killed while sitting in his truck in his garage.
DeValkenaere, 41, was indicted by a grand jury with first-degree involuntary manslaughter and armed criminal action in the 2019 killing of Cameron Lamb, 26.
According to court records, DeValkenaere and another officer were investigating an earlier disturbance between two vehicles when they went into Lamb’s backyard. DeValkenaere said he shot Lamb, who was still in his truck after backing it into the garage, after Lamb pointed a gun at the other officer.
Lamb’s family and other activists have questioned the police account. And Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said her office was “stymied” by the police department’s refusal to provide a probable cause statement to prosecutors.
Police said Lamb’s left arm was hanging out of the truck and a gun was found on the ground beneath his hand.
Lamb is right-handed and he did not have full use of his left hand as a result of an injury sustained in 2015, according to prosecutors.
The Associated Press contributed to this article