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.
Kinda like the way it should work when one gets pulled over for a traffic infraction, eh? Take the matter to court rather than create widows and orphans.
Too late for that, CJ.
That's not what is shown in the picture above captioned "body of the suspect."
It is plainly a man who looks to be bald and black. I've seen enough dead bodies of white folks to know that they appear more white rather than less after dying. However, he (the man in the above picture) doesn't appear to be 300 lbs as betty says her picture depicts Matthews. Could it be that the caption above is incorrect and that is the picture of Taylor's body on the ground?
Ahh...this is the level of your honesty.
Produce the evidence to the contrary or shut up, Demi
Good try. The article states that the officer was attended to by paramedics on the scene and then rushed to the hospital where he died. We see no paramedics attending to the apparently dead body next to the cruiser.
But hopefully others will learn a valuable lesson from this: Ideology kills.
Late last night, there was a report on TV that stated: a Massillon officer had been shot...and he was in critical condition.
Massillon is just a typical small town in Ohio...they love football, rock-n-roll, beer, classic cars, motorcycles, Jesus, and the U.S.A.
They were probably in such a state of SHOCK when this shooting happened...they had no time to come up with a conspiracy.
The whole theory behind ballistic tests is that the markings in each case are unique. Like fingerprints and DNA, a match is a match.
Fair enough, CJ. But have you checked out your own ideology quotient recently?
I don't know what sort of a person you are. All I know is you find me grieving for a dead friend, and all you seem to want to do is provoke me. Why?
Give what up? I'm asking you to comment on the picture which you have eroneously claimed was of a man covered in a white sheet.
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