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.
There is no place here for admonition to violence. Check the posting guidelines, knucklehead.
I could name names.
Yup, sounds like some of the nut-jobs that hang out here. Only the truly, deeply tin-foil-hatted would start screaming about the Constitution when he's been pulled over for speeding.
Good grief.
Whoever this guy was, if you could pull up his screen name and look at some of his posts I guarantee you'd see more of the same vomit and garbage that all the whack-jobs that (unfortunately) frequent (or I should say, "infest") FR typically spew.
Those seem to be options you haven't considered. They certainly seem more viable than pulling out a gun.
Not a difficult one. If it was the ATF, they would likely have been called in by the locals. The locals may have drawn the conclusion that this nutcase looked like an "activist" with connections, and a pre-planned setup - which would certainly prompt a federal involvement.
That's slander. All we have to go on at this point is a newspaper article. There hasn't even been a coroner's report. You need to shut up until you have some proof other than what you're trying to claim is evidence of insanity, which amounts only to a collection of posts which so offend your sense of order.
Why do they identify the man in this way and go into detail about the man's of lack of hair?
The way that I read one of the articles, the dead officer was a backup officer who was called in by the initial officer, who is still alive. The officer who stopped him saw him go for his gun so he ran back to his car and radioed for backup. The officer who was murdered was one of the officers who responded to the call for backup.
By all accounts, the dead officer was shot once in the buttocks with the round penetrating into his chest cavity. That hardly sounds like he was "shot in the back" to me. He was also wearing a vest, according to the articles which have been posted. The manner of the wound raises a lot of questions. If you don't want to find answers to those questions, fine. It isn't up to you to decide that the questions won't be asked.
Of course, if it is immediately following an incident in which the "teacher" murdered a police officer over a traffic ticket.
So much for Free Republic mission statement.
Move to a socialist country, you will be much more comfortable.
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