Posted on 08/11/2002 3:23:16 AM PDT by ResistorSister
MASSILLON — A 61-year-old man in a straw hat led a state trooper and then city police on a chase that ended in a hail of gunfire when the man whipped out a high-powered Czechoslovakian military weapon and fired away Friday night.
Investigators are continuing to piece together what started out as a seemingly routine traffic stop for a speeding violation and ended 12.3 miles and 12 minutes later in a double shooting that left a police officer, Eric Taylor, and the suspect, Donald W. Matthews, dead.
On Saturday, authorities released more information to a stunned and grieving community.
Mayor Francis Cicchinelli Jr. called the episode “the most tragic incident in the history of our city.
“These kinds of incidents should not occur anywhere in our country, let alone in Massillon,” he said. “We’ve lost a hero, and he certainly will be missed.”
Police Chief Mark Weldon remembered when Taylor came looking for a job on the force.
“He seemed a little bit green,” Weldon said, noting that he told Taylor to come back in a couple of years.
“He did that, and we hired him. And I’ve never had reason to regret it until today,” the chief said, struggling to choke back tears.
Ohio Highway Patrol Lt. Gary Lewis and Maj. James Walker were joined by Weldon, Cicchinelli and City Safety Director Al Climer at a news conference at 8 a.m. Saturday.
They tried to answer questions from news media representing northeastern Ohio.
City police, area troopers and investigators from Columbus announced that they were trying to determine whether Matthews, whom friends described as a staunch constitutionalist, had ties to the Ohio Militia.
Friends described him as outspoken when it came to his views on the rights provided to citizens via the U.S. Constitution.
On Saturday, officials gave the following account of the shootout:
The traffic stop started out calmly enough Friday night.
Trooper Joseph Hershey, 25, of the Highway Patrol’s Wooster post, pulled over Matthews of 6688 Casper Ave. NW in Jackson Township for speeding. Matthews was doing 72 mph in a 60-mph zone in his wife’s 1992 Ford Taurus when he was stopped on Route 21 at Edwards Road near Doylestown.
Hershey, a member of the Highway Patrol since March 2001, knew something was wrong right away: Matthews wouldn’t surrender his driver’s license. Matthews only cracked the window open and held the license up to the glass. He muttered something about his constitutional rights being violated.
As Hershey walked back to his cruiser, Matthews sped away.
Hershey followed him, stopping him temporarily at Route 21 and Cherry Road NW in Massillon.
It became clear to the trooper that something was terribly amiss when he walked toward the car and noticed Matthews pulling a large gun from under the car seat.
Hershey backed away and returned to his cruiser.
Massillon police were called in on the chase. Five officers in four cars responded as Matthews drove away again.
Matthews only got a block farther before he pulled into the field at the corner of Cherry and First Street NW where The Arena is under construction. The lot, which used to be the Agathon ballfield, is across the street from the new Massillon Recreation Center.
As Matthews pulled onto the lot, he left the car in drive and bailed out of it, taking his Czechoslovakian CZ-762x25 semiautomatic military handgun with him and firing at police.
Hershey fired back. He wasn’t injured.
Taylor’s patrol car, too, had followed Matthews’ car into a ravine about 100 yards from the curb.
Taylor, who also fired back, was hit and dropped to the gravel. His bulletproof vest didn’t save him. Taylor later was pronounced dead at Massillon Community Hospital.
News of Taylor’s death rippled in whispers through the crowd that had gathered at the lot. Matthews’ body was not removed until several hours after the shootout. Eventually, police covered the body with a sheet and put up another sheet to hide it from onlookers.
More than 130 people lined the yellow crime scene tape strung up by police and troopers. Some onlookers wiped tears from their faces. A few hugged the handful of uniformed and plainclothes officers who arrived at the scene.
Walker, an operations commander for the Highway Patrol in Columbus, announced Saturday morning that all flags at Highway Patrol posts across the state will fly at half-staff in honor of Taylor.
You can reach Repository writer Lori Monsewicz at (330) 580-8309 or e-mail:
About a month ago my marital arts buddy was strip searching a guy and had him bend over. The guy had a plastic bag sticking out of his rectum. They made him pull it out and it was a golf ball size bag of crack cocaine.
It's rather common.
I wonder how many of the people who smoke that stuff know that.
I was trying to make a funny but I hear ya on things people do to hide drugs. My father works construction in NJ's prison system and he says the guards tell him stories that are downright laugh out loud but sad at the same time.
But then again I don't think crack heads are very concerned that their product be fecal matter free.
Probably way too graphic for the young ones but some older teens could use a scary story when dealing with severe drug addiction.
I couldn't imagine working in a prison, not even for a minute. My neighbor is a prison guard, we exchange stories.
My father hates it. Though he tells funny stories about how popular he is in the women's detention center after installing airconditioning ;-)
If he left a .357 or .40 or 9mm at home in favor of the .7.62X25, that would indicate something else.
Gives a whole new meaning to crack cocaine, doesn't it? LOL
Oh, just curious, what's the name of the city?
Can you flag me on this one .... been looking at these pistols for a cache or just an extra one. Be interested to see its performance
Good solution for pit bulls. One of my favorite targets.
One of our detectives was working with some Cleveland PD detectives. They refer to Lorain as "Little Detroit."
The population is about 70,000, and is the 10th largest city in Ohio. We have a steel mill which manufactures much of the seemless pipe that is made in bomb making. We also have a Ford plant that was making the Cougar and Thunderbird.
Lorain has the largest bascule bridge in the US and 2nd biggest in the world. The bascule bridge is named after Charles Berry, a US Marine who was awarded the Medal of Honor for actions against the Japanese at the battle of Iwo Jima. George Steinbrenner used to own the American Shipbuilding company, which closed down many years ago.
The city also has a bridge named after Lofton Henderson who was from Lorain. He drove his airplane down the stack of a Japanese ship in WWII, Henderson Field on Guadalcanal is named in his memory.
A WWI Marine named Danley has a street named after him also, Danley Square.
Admiral Ernest J. King, Commander of Naval Forces Pacific, WWII, was also a Lorain native and we have a High School named after him (which only 50% of the students who are enrolled attend)
"Father Guido Sarducci"-Don Novello, is also from Lorain. I met him a few months ago when his father passed away and he was in town. He wasn't too pleased with the police that day. I think his sister was the Surgeon General for a time.
Helen Steiner Rice was from Lorain, as is Toni Morrison, the writer. Terry Anderson, the writer who was held hostage in Iran for years is from Lorain. I saw him once at St. Mary's Church when I went to Mass, shortly after he was released.
We've had a number of pro athletes from Lorain, most of them played football, the most recent was Raymont Harris who was a running back for the Bears.
Lorain used to be a great city, alot of industry, great job opportunities, and a very patriotic city. At one time we had the steel mill, the Ford plant, American Shipbuilding, which built US Navy ships, including a troop transport, the USS Lorain County (which they are trying to bring back here and dock) Thew shovel, the steam shovel company which made steam shovels that helped build the Panama Canal.
But it's all mostly gone now. Today Lorain is trying to rebound from near bankruptcy. We're another dying rustbelt city with a large welfare population.
So, that's the Reader's Digest version, a once beautiful old city now in decay.
If your ever up this way stop in and we can go walleye or perch fishing.
Take care....
I think my son saw that. He's totally into fishing, I am too, just hard to get the time right now. As a matter of fact, my son is up in the High Sierras fishing as we speak, coming back Sunday.... Never caught a walleye, but would sure love to. I too have seen them on the fishing shows.....
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