MASSILLON, Ohio -- The man who died in a shootout that also killed a Massillon police officer had no apparent reason to flee a traffic stop, the State Highway Patrol said.
Donald W. Matthews, 61, of Canton, had no criminal record, traffic violations or outstanding warrants before Friday's chase and gunfire, Patrol Maj. James Walker said Saturday.
Massillon Patrolman Eric Taylor, 31, died in the shootout despite wearing a city-required bulletproof vest, Police Chief Mark Weldon said. He would not say where Taylor was wounded. The married father of a 3- and 1-year-old had been on the force four years.
"I remember Eric when I first interviewed him, and he was kind of young," Weldon said, his voice cracking. "I remember telling him to come back in a couple of years. And he did that, and I have never regretted it, until now.
"He was one of the good ones. He cared deeply about the job, about the community, about the people."
Walker, commander of patrol field operations statewide, gave this account of the chase:
Trooper Joseph Hershey first stopped Matthews about 8:30 p.m. Friday on state Route 21 in Wayne County. The trooper had clocked the Ford sedan Matthews was driving at 72 mph in a 60 mph zone, he said. Hershey also was prepared to ticket Matthews for not wearing a seat belt.
Matthews refused to roll down his driver's side window more than an inch and showed the trooper his drivers license through the glass. Then he drove off.
Hershey chased Matthews about 12 miles south into Massillon, pulled him over again. As Hershey approached the car, Matthews said something about his constitutional rights, and the trooper saw him turn and grab a gun. Hershey backed away, and the driver took off again.
Massillon police answered a call for backup and joined the chase, which ended a few minutes later in a construction site parking lot along the highway near a residential neighborhood.
Matthews got out of his car with the handgun and fired first. He was armed with a Czechoslovakian semiautomatic handgun, Walker said, but the patrol has not determined if the imported weapon was licensed, registered or legal.
Taylor was declared dead at 11:45 p.m. at Massillon Community Hospital, Mayor Francis Cicchinelli said.
Matthews died at the scene of gunshot wounds, said the Stark County coroner, Dr. James Pritchard, adding he would not know how many until an autopsy was performed on Saturday.
Cicchinelli said he spoke with Taylor's wife.
"The reaction was, 'Why did this happen?' and who can answer that?" the mayor said. "It's a message to all of us that these kinds of things can happen anywhere."
Two bouquets with silvery helium balloons reading "With love" marked the small gravel parking lot Saturday morning.
Ward and Orpah Moore walked about two blocks from their house to look over the scene. They said their son is a police officer in Nelsonville in southeast Ohio.
"So for us it really hit home," Orpah Moore said. "It's a very sad situation, any time a public defender loses his life. Something is wrong."
The couple often listen to a police scanner at home and heard radio calls as the chase and shootings unfolded. Ward Moore went to the scene and saw officers trying to resuscitate Taylor, whom he knew.
"Knowing him was important to me," said Ward Moore, who like Taylor is black. "There are not that many blacks on the force. ... He was a really good person."
Another neighbor, Stephanie Criss, said he has trouble believing this could happen in the peaceful community about 50 miles south of Cleveland. Massillon is best known for its avid high school football fans and as the hometown of legendary pro coach Paul Brown.
"It is gut-wrenching. It's devastating," she said.
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.