Ricky Hamrick was shot to death in front of his 8-year-old daughter while the gun was up for sale (Image: Family Sharing)

A girl in Alabama witnessed the murder of her father after a botched gun deal brokered by Facebook Marketplace.

Ricky Hamrick III, 39, and his 8-year-old daughter were on a Sunday expedition from Cleburn County to Bessemer together. They were about to finish the day at Whataburger.

Police told AL.com that Hamrick had arranged for Bessemer buyers to sell two guns on the Facebook marketplace.

When buyers arrived to bid outside the Salvation Army thrift store, they fired three rounds of ammunition into Hemlick’s car and stole the gun. His daughter was not injured.

“There was no provocation against this shooting,” said Lt. Christian Clemmons of the Bessemer Police Department. We’re talking low, dirty, rotten cowards.

Ricky Hamrick’s family called him a “gentle giant” (Image: Family Archive)

Harrick had no criminal record, and Clemmons believed the guns were being sold legally.

Hamrick’s daughter was helped by a nearby Good Samaritan who heard the turmoil.

“The good people of Bessemer took care of the eight-year-old boy, understood what had happened, heard gunshots, rushed to his aid, took him home and waited for officers to arrive,” Clemmons told ABC 33/40. news.

A passerby later revealed his identity to AL.com. Kelly Brown hugged Hamrick’s daughter as police investigated the crime scene outside her home.

-Looking around the corner, I saw a man leaning against me. “You can see it shot through the temple on the left,” Brown told the publication. “I heard the boy scream. He got out of the car and went in, and to congratulate his heart, he didn’t want to leave his father.

The girl was covered in her father’s blood.

“He needed all of me to keep him from breaking down in front of him,” Brown said.

Hamrick’s mother and daughter’s grandmother, Debbie Stringer, picked up the girl.

On the way home from Birmingham, he said, “We were laughing and walking to Whataburger,” Stringer recalled.

Stringer called his son a “gentle giant” and a close friend.

Hamrick lost his leg when the gun he was cleaning fell a year ago. Since then, he has made money buying and selling things online.

“He was just a friendly man trying to achieve his goals,” his mother said.

“He loved his family more than anything else, and he loved him.”

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