Missing Wichita child rescued, mother thought he 'was possessed by a demon'

Deputies: The 9-year-old child was placed into a fire that was burning his possessions.

HIGHLANDS COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) -- A man who was burning a 9-year-old's things because the child "was possessed by a demon" was fatally shot Tuesday evening after placing the child in the fire, and hitting a Highlands County deputy in the head with a metal bar, according to the sheriff's office.

Deputies responded to a location along Bay Blossom Drive near U.S. Highway 98 in Sebring, Florida, and found 39-year-old Richard Myron Ham and 30-year-old Lakenya Phillips burning her son's things because "they believed he was possessed by a demon."

Witnesses said at one point, Ham put the child in the fire, covered in a blanket that was also on fire, according to deputies. The child escaped without serious injury.

The deputies found Ham with two metal bars and deployed a taser after he wouldn't comply, according to the sheriff's office. Ham removed the taser probes and then hit one of the deputies in the head with the bar.

Another deputy shot Ham, who died at a hospital, according to the sheriff's office.

The deputy who was hit with the bar was taken to a hospital and was released.

Phillips and her 9-year-old son were reported missing and endangered on Dec. 6 out of Wichita, Kansas, deputies said. Deputies are unsure of why the two were in Highlands County.

Ham has been convicted of armed felonies and drug possession and also had prior arrests in South Carolina, Georgia, and Arkansas, according to the sheriff's office.