A Lorraine police LT holds the knife.Posted on 02/01/2002 12:20:22 PM PST by Travis McGee
MICHAEL C. FITZPATRICK, Morning Journal Writer February 01, 2002
Lorain police Lt. Rich Resendez yesterday holds a knife that was taken from the scene. (PAUL WALSH)
LORAIN -- Police are conducting two separate investigations into the fatal shooting by a policeman of a Lorain man with a history of mental illness after a fellow officer was stabbed.
Ronnie Untalan, 30, was shot and killed by Lorain police officer Joseph Kopronica in a home at 4623 Riverside Drive after Untalan stabbed Kopronica's partner, James Wolford, with a butcher knife.
The two officers were called to the home of Untalan's parents by his mother at 10:24 p.m. to calm him down after he grabbed a 12.5-inch kitchen knife, ripped the phone out of the wall and barricaded himself in the kitchen.
Untalan was treated at the scene by emergency personnel and was taken to Community Health Partners West, where he was pronounced dead by the emergency room physician, according to police.
He was killed by single gunshot to the chest which perforated his heart, according to Lorain County Coroner Dr. Paul Matus. [Nice shot.]
Wolford, a 10-year veteran, was treated for a stab wound he received to his left rib-area and later released, said police.
Untalan was diagnosed as a schizophrenic 15 years ago, according to his father Romeo, and had been taking medication for his disorder. He had been discharged from the Nord Center on Monday after spending the past weekend with his parents.
''We will do an internal investigation and evaluation to see if standard police policy and procedures were used,'' said Safety/Service Director Craig Miller.
Miller said he, the city prosecutor and Police Chief Cel Rivera will then review the reports to determine what action --if any -- will be taken.
''We will not rush the internal investigation, but we will do it as quickly and efficiently as possible,'' Miller said. Miller said the Lorain Police Department should be able to handle the investigation independently.
''I don't see any reason for the county or the state to take the investigation any further if our investigations determine the officer acted properly in using deadly force,'' said Miller. Lorain County Prosecutor Gregory White couldn't be reached for comment.
According to Miller, one Lorain police detective will investigate to determine if Kopronica was justified in his use of deadly force. Another detective will investigate Untalan's actions in the incident, to determine if he might have been in the act of committing a felonious assault on a police officer at the time of the shooting. [IF??!!]
Kopronica has been put on paid leave and will continue in that status until the investigations are complete, according to Miller.
The four-year veteran with the force was not available for comment yesterday.
According to Lt. Rich Resendez, LifeCare -- a local ambulance service -- had been called to the scene but refused to assist when emergency workers learned that Untalan had a knife. A Lorain police crisis negotiation team was also called to the scene.
According to Resendez, when Wolford and Kopronica arrived at the home, Untalan had already barricaded himself in the kitchen, blocking the doorway with a small table. Wolford, standing in the living room, tried to calm down Untalan, and for a brief moment appeared to be making headway.
However, Untalan lunged at Wolford with the knife and stabbed him. Wolford fell on the floor and Untalan fell over him, landing on a nearby couch. When Untalan tried to get up from the couch Kopronica, also standing in the living room, fired a shot that struck Untalan in the chest.
''As Mr. Untalan got up from the couch, still with the knife in his hand, Officer Kopronica had no other alternative but to discharge his weapon,'' Resendez said. [Oh come on, just go out and get your Taser or bean bag gun.]
According to the report, police removed the knife from Untalan's hand only after he was shot.
''He did in fact have the knife, there was no doubt about it,'' said Resendez.
Said Romeo Untalan: ''It all happened in a split second.''
Resendez said Untalan's violent behavior forced Lorain police to use deadly force.
''I believe he had already stabbed Officer Wolford. Officer Wolford was down, knew he had been stabbed, in fact made some statements ÔI've been cut, I've been stuck,' or something to that effect,'' Resendez said.
Resendez characterized Kopronica as a good policeman.
''Officer Kopronica is an excellent officer. (He's had ) no disciplinary problems. I had the availability to supervise him when I was assigned to uniform patrol. (He's a) very good officer, very conscientious officer, very caring officer.''
Romeo Untalan, who had tried along with Wolford to talk his son into giving up, said he questioned if police needed to kill his son. He said Kopronica could have shot Ronnie Untalan in the leg. [After stabbing a cop and tackling him?]
''Why not shoot to maim him,'' said Romeo Untalan who moved his family to the United States from the Philippines in 1992, [Legal or illegal? They let you in with a psycho son?] and had moved Ronnie and his wife to Lorain to avoid the violence of New York. [LOL!]
''They told me this is safer than New York,'' he said with a sad shrug.
mfitzpatrick@morningjournal.com
©The Morning Journal 2002
A Lorraine police LT holds the knife.
MICHAEL C. FITZPATRICK, Morning Journal Writer February 01, 2002
LORAIN -- Romeo and Corazon Untalan, the parents of the man shot and killed by a Lorain police officer Wednesday night, said their son was a diagnosed schizophrenic who had been receiving treatment at the Nord Center. The couple, who immigrated to the United States in 1992 from their native Philippines [why'd we let the psycho family in? Don't we have enough?] and both work at Preferred Packaging in Elyria, said Ronnie Untalan, 30, had spent the past weekend on a two-day pass at their home, but when the parents went to take him back to the hospital on Monday night they were told their son had been discharged and would have to go back home.
Romeo Untalan said the hospital called their house over the weekend to remind Ronnie Untalan to return on Sunday, but that he had forgotten.
''He was always forgetting things,'' his mother said.
On Monday night, the Untalans received a call from the Nord Center at around dinner time asking if they could bring their son in, but when the couple took him to the hospital he was turned away, said Romeo Untalan.
''It shouldn't have happened, it shouldn't have happened,'' said Romeo in broken English. ''In my mind this could have been avoided.'' [LAWSUIT!! REFUSED SERVICE!!]
Romeo Untalan said neither he nor his wife were ever provided any discharge papers for their son from Nord.
The Nord Center, citing patient confidentiality issues, refused to comment directly on the case.
''As I am sure you are aware, we can neither confirm nor deny that Mr. Untalan ... is or was receiving care from the Nord Center,'' said Dr. Antoni Sulikowski, the Nord Center's executive director.
Sulikowski only accepted fax-submitted questions on the matter yesterday.
Police Lt. Rich Resendez said Untalan's parents informed police their son was a patient at Nord.
''That's some information we had heard, and we are going to verify,'' Resendez said.
Untalan's parents said police and a crisis management team from the Nord Center had been called to the house just two weeks ago for another incident involving their son.
Untalan was diagnosed with schizophrenia 15 years ago. [And we let him into the USA???] He had had been in and out of mental institutions in Ohio and New York since that time, his parents said.
Romeo Untalan said in recent weeks he had noticed his son's mood darkening. He said his son had begun having trouble sleeping, was acting jittery, had little appetite and had begun talking to himself.
''I knew that things were starting to go bad when he was talking to himself,'' said Romeo. ''That was a bad sign.''
The couple spent yesterday morning talking to media.
In the living room, where the shooting took place, the couple sat on the same U-shaped couch on which their son was shot and killed. A lit candle sat on a small coffee table in front of the couch and two religious icons were propped against a blood soaked portion of the couch where Ronnie Untalan lay after the shooting.
''This is not because we don't love Ronnie, but I think it's better for him that he'll rest in peace. No pain anymore. No pain for him and no pain for us. He suffered much pain. We suffered the pain,'' said Romeo Untalan.
Ronnie Untalan, who his parents said was an avid sports fan and liked to watch Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee movies, is survived by his four brothers and sisters.
He was remembered by his parents as an outgoing young man who enjoyed playing tennis, basketball and had played a game of catch with a football in front of their home with one of his brothers over the weekend.
Romeo Untalan said he was told when his son was diagnosed with mental illness his life would change.
''They told me it would never be the same. Good and bad, good and bad.''
©The Morning Journal 2002
What's it like to work in the Nutcase Capitol of the Midwest, "Insane Loraine" Ohio?
Ironically since I'm pretty picky about what I shoot...that was the only deer I shot this year.
Travis, I'll bet in your neck of the woods I could have been arrested. I guess I could have used my Stryder knife I keep in the car but that seemed a bit brutal.
His Pop said it best "I think it's better for him that he'll rest in peace. No pain anymore. No pain for him and no pain for us. He suffered much pain. We suffered the pain,'' said Romeo Untalan."
If he isn't suffering now don't try to sue the City.
Poor little fruitcake. Thanks PD for saving the court cost and not to mention the Hospitals and the Docs he would have to see BEFORE NOT TAKING HIS MEDICATION.
How many risks to Society do we have to put up with?
If you've ever seen that show with the high speed cop chases when a van crashes into a storefront window, throwing a woman through the air, Lt. Resendez was involved in that. The guy in the van had robbed a bank in the city.
We're all medicated in Lorain LOL.
I do feel sorry for the parents.
Stay well - Stay safe - Stay armed - Yorktown
Other recent psycho immigrants of note:
/1/ The Russian who stabbed his entire family to death in Sacramento. He was TOO CRAZY FOR THE RUSSIAN ARMY, (!!!!!!!), but just hunky dory to come to the USA and become a citizen.
/2/ The Nigerian "law student" who went on a shooting rampage last month.
Don't we have enough psychos in this country without importing more??
It's an easy "game" to play to test how hard it is: use a holstered (unloaded) pistol versus a friend/attacker armed with a magic marker at ten feet. The magic marker man gets to pick when and how to attack. The guy with the (holstered, unloaded) gun will usually get marked up.
Is that monster still wasting air?
God bless you..if it weren't for the lovely topography and the grand Pacific I don't know how you stand it....with all due respect.
LOL..sort of.
He was institutionalized. But he had been discharged.
"Ronnie Untalan, 30, had spent the past weekend on a two-day pass at their home, but when the parents went to take him back to the hospital on Monday night they were told their son had been discharged and would have to go back home."
Cured, no doubt...
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