BUFFALO, N.Y. — Keaira Hudson’s last cry for help was a Facebook video she posted calling out to her followers to see the abuse she faced a week before her estranged husband Adam Bennefield allegedly shot and killed her while on cashless bail.
Her murder has left the community heartbroken and wondering why Bennefield wasn’t red-flagged in the first place, which would have caused his weapons to be confiscated.
“The fact that she had a videotape that showed that he was being violent towards her… it's hard to imagine that a judge presented with a red flag petition would not have issued a red flag order,” attorney Barry Covert said.
Red flags occur when someone petitions a court to remove firearms from a person who may be a danger to themself or others.
But Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia says, in this case, he didn’t believe a red flag was the answer.
"A red flag in this was not was not going to change the manner and the course,” he said. “We do everything we could to locating this individual.”
Law enforcement would only be able to confiscate firearms at Bennefield’s home and Gramaglia said that was already searched, so he believes enacting this law would not have prevented the homicide.
“It's very easy for individuals to get weapons from other sources, shotguns or rifles, from friends, relatives, people who may not know that there is an order in place that prevents an individual from having access to weapons,” Covert said.
While red flags may not have been the solution, Erie County District Attorney John Flynn says this all could have been prevented if New York joined the other 49 states in allowing judges to consider dangerousness when setting bail — which he believes would have prevented Bennefield’s cashless bail in this case and kept him on a tighter leash.
“You can keep bail as it is, and you add in one sentence that says that judges have the ability to assess that the defendant’s dangerousness,” Flynn said.
Adam Bennefield is in police custody after being charged with murder. He's due back in court on November 15th.