Gary Helman’s last words were, “They don’t want to arrest me, they want to kill me.” Less than 90 minutes later, he was shot and killed in his mother’s Cromwell home. (See related)

Was Gary Helman the crazy man police say he was? Or, was it possible Helman had first-hand knowledge of police and judicial corruption so deep that he became a target for death?

For 2 weeks I corresponded with Helman via email on what he deemed ongoing and unjustified harassment by police and judges from both Whitley and Kosciusko counties and by the Indiana State Police. Helman wanted his story told.

On Monday afternoon, literally just hours before bounty hunters attempted to serve warrants and take Helman into custody, I had the opportunity to sit down with him and hear why, he said, police constantly harassed him. It was the last time Helman would ever get the chance to have the world hear his story.

He was shot and killed 90 minutes after I left the home.

In hindsight, I now wonder if his twin brother, Larry, stayed outside to keep watch against the police, bounty hunters, or even federal agents the family said haunted them every day. I commented several times how Gary and his mother, Atta, seemed paranoid and caught sight of every small movement outside the front window of 9174 E. Doswell Blvd. “We’re on constant alert,” said Gary. “They are always watching us.”

“We never know when they are going to come back,” added Atta. “This is no way to live. It’s like we’re in prison.”

The following is a first in a series of the last words and thoughts Helman will ever have. This is his story:

Helman’s trouble with the legal system began in 2003 in Whitley County when, after a divorce, he tried to get custody of his three daughters. Documentation he provided claims his ex-wife lied to the court and that the judges for years denied him hearings to prove his claims. He cited numerous “illegal acts of the court” and said he only had the best interest of his children in mind.

From a child custody battle, Helman’s troubles blossomed into a series of state and federal lawsuits filed by him against the Whitley County judges and prosecutor. He said his civil rights were being violated and hoped a higher court would agree with him.

On Feb. 18, 2009, Helman filed a judicial misconduct and malicious prosecution suit against now retired Whitley County Superior Court Judge Michael Rush, Whitley County Circuit Court Judge James Heuer and prosecutor Matthew Renstschler. That, he said, was the real start of his trouble with law enforcement.

Just hours before his death, Gary Helman drew a graph he used to describe what he called “the bubble gang.”

“I call it the bubble gang,” Gary said, taking a sheet of paper and drawing a type of chart that he said led from the judges to family and friends. “Anyone in the bubble was protected. My ex-wife was in the bubble.”

The very day after the lawsuit was filed, Helman said two Indiana State Police officers came to his mother’s house on Doswell Boulevard. “(They) tried breaking in the back door. Me and my brother, Mike, were inside. They had no badges, no warrants, or nothing.

“They were cruising around the block and I thought, ‘Mom’s coming home so I gotta find out who these guys are’,” Helman continued. “So I grabbed my camera and ran out to the tree and they started slowly coming around. I grabbed the camera and looked around to start filming and they ducked down and took off … When I ran across the front yard, and this has not been reported to nobody, they turned around and came at me with a vehicle and actually tried to run me over. And I bring the camera up and they thought I pulled a gun, but I was just trying to film their license plate. So they told everybody I pulled a gun and that’s why everybody came back out on 4/9/09. Because (they) lied.”

On April 9, 2009, Helman was shot three times by police outside of his mother’s home. For him, it was the beginning of a nightmare that included what he called the murder of his oldest brother, Mike, by local law enforcement.

Sitting across the small kitchen table on Monday afternoon, Helman leaned in and said, “I’m tired of getting shot and I’m tired of them harassing us. It’s got to stop. You have to get the truth out.”

(EDITOR’S NOTE: Helman’s account of the Nov. 9, 2009, incident and his claims of corruption will continue exclusively on StaceyPageOnline.com)