Massillon Patrol Officer
Eric Taylor
Posted on 08/10/2002 6:07:37 AM PDT by ResistorSister
MASSILLON (OHIO) -- A city police officer and a man he was chasing are dead, killed in a shootout at the old Agathon ballfield Friday night.
Killed were Eric Taylor, 31, a four-year veteran of the Police Department, and a still unidentified suspect.
“This is a major tragedy for our city,” said Mayor Francis Cicchinelli, who announced Taylor’s death at Massillon Community Hospital at about 11:45 p.m.
Taylor was married, with three young children.
Investigators from the Ohio Highway Patrol, Massillon Police Department and Stark County coroner’s office remained at the scene past midnight, as did the body of the suspect, a balding, white man who was driving a four-door Ford sedan with Stark County license plates. His body was covered with one sheet, another blocked the view of the more than 100 bystanders who gathered near First Street and Cherry Road NW.
The trouble began shortly before 8:30 p.m. on Route 21 and Edwards Road in Wayne County near Doylestown, according to Lt. Herb Homan, commander of the Wooster Post of the Highway Patrol.
One of his troopers had stopped the southbound Ford on Route 21 at 8:22 p.m. for speeding. The trooper talked with the driver, there was a confrontation and five minutes later, the trooper reported the car was fleeing. He chased it south, and Massillon police got involved.
The chase ended in Massillon east of Route 21, in the ballfield just south of Cherry Road.
Lt. Gary Lewis of the Highway Patrol said the man got out of his car with a high-powered semiautomatic weapon, and that he fired first at officers. At least three Massillon officers and a trooper were involved in the gunfire. He said they don’t know which officer fired the shot that killed the suspect nor do they know which shot killed Taylor.
Scott McElfresh said he was watching television in his home on Cherry Road, northeast of the scene, when he heard shots. He looked out his window and saw flashes from gunfire.
He estimated he heard four shots and then an additional 30 to 40 shots, and that he saw flashes indicating police were returning fire.
“It’s not something you expect to happen in Massillon,” he said.
Other witnesses said they heard 10 to 12 shots.
“We didn’t know if it was fireworks or gunshots,” said Dave Hodgson, who was with friends about a block to the north.
Stark County Coroner James Pritchard said the suspect died of gunshot wounds, but he won’t know how many until he does an autopsy on the man today. He’ll also do an autopsy on Taylor.
Taylor was rushed from the scene to Massillon Community moments after the shooting.
The suspect’s body remained on the corner of a field off of First Street and Cherry Road until after midnight. Police said they had not verified the man’s identification, and they wouldn’t release his name until family was notified.
Through the early morning, Taylor’s cruiser and the suspect’s car remained in the middle of the field on which The Arena is being built.
The Highway Patrol and Massillon police are sharing the investigation.
They used 44 red cups to mark shell casings and other pieces of evidence on First Street. Bright lights illuminated the scene, showing the back window of a Massillon cruiser was shattered, and glass was scattered across the street.
A helicopter from Columbus was brought in to map the crime scene.
A handful of officers not involved in the investigation showed up at the scene, some in uniform and some in street clothes, somber and stone faced. Family of other officers showed up, patted a couple of officers on the back, shook their hands and hugged them.
A police chaplain met with the family at Massillon Community.
A red tent for officers was pitched in the yard of the Massillon Recreation Center, across the street from the crime scene.
CJ, chill, that's a fair question, and demidog did not have an ulterior motive for asking it. My bad, demidog, I made a transposition, it was post #215.
Duh. You are batting o'fer today and your trolls are weak. Forget your Wheaties this morning?
He deeply resented the way state and local law enforcement hassled people of color and the economically disadvantaged, and said so. Most of the students in his Cincinnati classes were blacks. Don thought he was helping to empower the underprivileged in our society by teaching them the tools with which they could assert their constitutional rights, and many of these people are grateful to him.
Cultural Jihad's response:
That he taught disadvantaged youths to disrespect lawful authority means he did them no big favor.
Is it fair, is it intellectually honest, to interpret "empower the underprivileged in our society by teaching them the tools with which they could assert their constitutional rights" as "he taught disadvantaged youths to disrespect lawful authority "?
I couldn't comment one way or the other. I have had one experience with coroners - I was talking to one at a bar one time, said I had a bad day, she said she had had one also, and I was dumb enough to ask her to elaborate. Never ask a cororner to elaborate upon a bad day if you want to keep your dinner down...
What the heck does this mean? It's vague. It doesn't say that they did ballistics tests it says the bullet "matched Matthew's imported gun..." Have they yet performed balistics tests on all of the officer's guns as well? We don't know.
I really want to see the video from the original officer's patrol car.
Why? Hasn't the Trilateral Commission already doctored the tape?
Touche.
However, up until this incident, the person of whom we speak had a completely clear record. Given that, it would seem that the most likely interpretation of the empirical evidence (the "actions") is that he usually did give proper respect to lawful authority, and that the horrendous actions that ended his life were some sort of extreme aberration or uncharacteristic exercise of execrable judgement.
From the article: (you really should try to keep up)
Investigators from the Ohio Highway Patrol, Massillon Police Department and Stark County coroner’s office remained at the scene past midnight, as did the body of the suspect, a balding, white man who was driving a four-door Ford sedan with Stark County license plates. His body was covered with one sheet, ...
Second of all, apparently the gun allegedly used by Matthews was Czech. The article that was yanked gave a better description. I don't recall the specific make of the gun offhand. If I did, there are probably a couple of thousand freepers who could tell me the caliber of that weapon off the top of their heads, and whether that caliber is a standard issue, such as 9mm, or something exotic that could easily be differentiated from what the cops were carrying. But without that, I will defer to the coroner's report.
How did you guys find out who the shooter was?
Was he really a freeper?
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