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:
Unfortunately it's a yellow dog democrat town. If you look at that county by county chart that they showed for the Bush-Gore election you'll see that Lorain County and I think Cuyahoga Co. (Cleveland) are the only two that were for Gore around here. (ashamed to say)
What else can you say about a city of 70,000 people that doesn't have a full service grocery store?
Don't feel to bad, I live in a yellow dog state, but it's home, and I will stay just to piss um off. I've become quite good at it.....
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