HELP KEEP A COP KILLER BEHIND BARS

Missouri Board of Probation and Parole
Re: Elmer R. Hayes, #22281
3400 Knipp Drive
Jefferson City, MO. 65109

Dear Sir or Madam:

I am writing this letter to openly oppose the impending consideration for parole of inmate #22281, Elmer R. Hayes.

My name is Kirk Lawless and I am a retired Florissant Missouri Police Officer. While I did not serve on the department when Hayes savagely gunned down Sergeant Jay Noser, I joined the Florissant Police Department several years later, in 1987.

I would later work with his young son, William, for several years. Jay’s brother Ken Noser, retired as a Police Lieutenant from the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. Ken was one of my mentors (and I know for fact, he was troubled by the attack on his brother and he took that anguish to his grave) Ken’s son, Tom and I have been best friends for many years, so I am very connected to the Noser family.

The connection goes way beyond those mentioned in the previous paragraph. Jay and I, through the badge we wore, are brothers, and that bond transcends the grave. When you attack one of us, you attack all of us. When you kill one of us, ten more will pick up the mantle and carry on where the fallen brother could not press on.

Elmer Hayes is a vicious, blood-thirty cop killer. The point will be argued that he did not kill Sergeant Jay Noser on that day in 1979, but he did much more than that. He killed Sergeant Noser every day until he died a physical death in 2008. His family had to live with the suffering caused by Hayes. His friends and brothers did the same.

This is not a case of a bad guy shooting a cop in a fair gunfight and the officer dying. The savagery of Hayes goes way beyond that.

After Hayes tried to make good his getaway and was stopped by Sergeant Noser, he became predatory and went on he attack, shooting Sergeant Noser through the windshield while he was still sitting in his car, radioing the car stop. Hayes then walked up to Sergeant Noser’s car and pumped several more bullets into him at close range, I presume in an attempt to “finish him off.” Hayes left Sergeant Noser bleeding to death.” Knowing that he was at the doorstep of death, Sergeant Noser told the dispatcher via radio, to tell his wife that he loved her. My friends at the police station told me the story and it was a powerful and haunting memory for many of them.

Mr. Hayes had many options that day. The first, obviously, was not to rob the bank. He didn’t have to pull over when Sergeant Noser attempted to curb his vehicle. He certainly did not have to ambush Sergeant Noser, firing at him upon immediately exiting his vehicle.

What possessed him to walk up to the Sergeant’s car and attempt a coup de grace, (the devil perhaps, or at least one of his henchmen)? And all this for what, to keep the Sergeant from identifying him? That ship had already sailed. There were witnesses to the robbery and one had written down the license plate displayed on Hayes’ vehicle. It was a botched robbery from the beginning. Hayes’ big score was a paltry $1600.

Hayes gets to live in prison, where he is clothed, housed and fed, but he deserves so much more than that.

Sergeant Noser spent the next 29 years suffering from his wounds, with several bullets left in precarious placement within his body that would not allow surgical removal. As often is the case, his organs damaged by the bullets became riddled yet again, this time by cancer, the cancer that caused even more suffering, because of Hayes’ disregard for the life of another man, a policeman, doing his job.

What Mr. Hayes may or might not realize is that he can kill one of us, but he can’t kill all of us (and there are many of us)

I have yet to hear an answer as far as Hayes’ original charge, whether or not it was amended after Sergeant Jay Noser succumbed to his original injuries. Did his death change the sentence of Mr. Hayes? It should have.

Mr. Hayes should never be allowed outside the walls of prison. He should stay there until he dies as far as I’m concerned. When that happens I am personally available to help carry him out and put him in the potter’s field. I could not be more serious about that.

After many years on the job, this remains one of the most heinous attacks on a police officer that I can remember. I pray the board sees fit to keep Elmer R. Hayes #22281 behind bars for the rest of his life, because that is where he belongs.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or would like me to make a personal appearance at the hearing.

Sincerely,

Detective Kirk Lawless Florissant PD (Retired /LOD injury)
174867 Old Jamestown Rd, Florissant MO, 6303