Tamara Greene feared for her life, reverend says in affidavit

Fearing for her life, Tamara Greene turned to the man she knew affectionately as “Dad” and told him: “Some people are out to kill me.”

The man she confided in was the Rev. Ken Hampton, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Detroit, in a conversation six months before her April 30, 2003 death.

If true, Hampton’s statements in an affidavit could discredit a theory that Greene was killed as a result of a hotel party and fight about two weeks before she was gunned down.

Greene is the stripper known as Strawberry rumored to have danced at the never-proven Manoogian Mansion party in the fall of 2002. According to most versions of the rumor, the party occurred around Labor Day in 2002.

Hampton said he and Greene spoke a month or two later, but he has no knowledge of her connection to the rumored party.

Greene, 27, was shot three times and died April 30, 2003, as she was parking her Buick Skylark on Roselawn near West Outer Drive. Her boyfriend, Eric Mitchell, a convicted drug dealer, was in the passenger seat. He took a bullet to the neck and survived.

Hampton reiterated Wednesday what he said in an affidavit given in a lawsuit filed on behalf of Greene’s 14-year-old son.

About six months before her death, Greene called Hampton in a panic and told him: “Dad, we need to meet.” Later that day, they gathered at the Gospel House Bible Book Store on Grand River.

“You’ve probably heard about what I’ve been doing,” Hampton said Greene told him.
Hampton replied: “Yes. I have not been pleased with what I have heard.”

He said she replied: “I know. I know.”

Then she said: “Dad, they’re out to get me,” Hampton recalled Wednesday.

Hampton said he asked whom she was talking about, but Greene said she didn’t want to elaborate.

They held hands and prayed.

“That’s the last time I saw her alive,” Hampton, 67, said Wednesday. Hampton said that he’d occasionally offer Greene consultation over the phone.

Hampton said he learned about Greene’s death from news reports. Her funeral was at his church. He officiated.

Hampton, who was a Detroit cop for seven years, said he later gave Detroit homicide police a videotape of Greene’s funeral. He said he knew that sometimes killers attend funerals of their victims.

Over the next two years, he said, he met with Detroit police about five times, telling them all he knew about Greene and her lifestyle. He said he spoke with Assistant Chief Harold Cureton, who is now retired; and Lt. Billy Jackson and Sgt. Marion Stevenson.

Hampton said he became discouraged after Jackson was transferred out of homicide because he thought Jackson was taking the investigation seriously. None of the officers named in his affidavit could be reached for comment Wednesday.

After news reports resurfaced this year about Greene’s death, he made his way to Birmingham attorney Norman Yatooma. Yatooma represents Greene’s son, Jonathan Bond, and his father, Ernest Flagg, in a lawsuit against Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, Police Chief Ella Bully-Cummings and other top officials.

The suit claims they sabotaged the investigation into Greene’s death, preventing the family from filing a wrongful death suit against her killers.

Greene is the stripper rumored to have danced at the never-proven Manoogian Mansion party in the fall of 2002.

Last week Joyce Rogers, a retired Detroit police clerk, came forward in an affidavit to say she saw a police report Greene had filed in 2002. In the report, which has not surfaced, Rogers said, Greene alleged that the mayor’s wife, Carlita Kilpatrick, assaulted her with a wooden object at the Manoogian after seeing Greene improperly touch the mayor and that Greene was sent to a hospital for treatment.

Former Deputy Police Chief Gary Brown, who interviewed Rogers in 2003 for his successful whistle-blower suit against Kilpatrick, said he didn’t use Rogers in his suit because he could not verify it as true.

However, Brown said Wednesday that he has known Hampton for years, adding that Hampton has served as police chaplain. He said he did not know Hampton was Greene’s pastor, but finds him very credible.

“I think highly of his integrity,” Brown said of Hampton. “He’s a great guy.”

Yatooma said Wednesday that Hampton’s affidavit is key because it corroborates a theory that Greene was the target, not her boyfriend, Mitchell.

“Here is a former Detroit police officer, he is a pastor, he is a guy Tammy referred to as ‘Dad,’ ” Yatooma said. “He has made statements under oath. I can’t imagine any reason he would make this up.”

One of Greene’s close friends told police that Greene had danced at a bachelor party a week or two before her death. During a fight, which centered on a man’s demand for sex, the man punched Greene in the eye, the friend told police.

Yatooma said Hampton’s affidavit also pokes holes in any theory that the Southfield fight is connected with her killing.

“She was obviously not fearing a guy who she had a conflict two weeks ago,” he said.

Mayer Morganroth, an attorney for the city, could not be reached for comment Wednesday.