 REMEMBERED – Checkered Flag, of Massillon, donated stickers to the Massillon Police Department for their squad cars. Each squad car has the sticker on the right rear of the vehicle. (DAMON J. MORITZ/The Inde)
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Independent Staff Writer
The investigation into Friday night’s shooting that killed Massillon Ptl. Eric Taylor may not be quick, but it will be thorough, according to a city law enforcement official.
“We’re trying to nail down a sequence of events,” said Massillon Police Chief Mark Weldon. “The frantic part (Friday night) of our investigation is over. We want to reconstruct what happened that night.
“There’s no deadline on our investigation. We want to know what happened, but we want to be thorough.”
The Massillon Police Department is working in conjunction with the Ohio Highway Patrol on the investigation into the shooting which killed Taylor as well as Donald W. Matthews, 61, of 6688 Casper Ave. N.W., Jackson Township.
“We have no new updates (Sunday,) but we’re in the process of following up on any new leads,” said Lt. Gary Lewis, who handles public affairs for the OHP.
“Officials are working on it diligently,” said Mayor Frank Cicchinelli. “All of us in the community are still in a state of shock. The community is showing its support for the police force. It’s been a total tragedy. People are really feeling the loss.”
Cicchinelli and Safety-Services Director Al Climer declined to comment on the investigation.
Sgt. Jim Mizeres, head of Massillon Police Department’s Detective Bureau, said Sunday he’s still trying to get in touch with all the witnesses to the shooting and ready the case for a grand jury.
“Any time there’s a death involving the Police Department, we take it to the grand jury so there’s no unanswered questions,” he said. “It’s a protection of the public and also the Police Department.”
Massillon’s main police involvement started once the chase turned from Ohio 21 onto Cherry Road Northwest.
Mizeres said he will re-interview the officers involved. They were interviewed once but the detective bureau head said he wants to do it again because the situation was so “confusing.”
Law enforcement officials said Saturday they are investigating Matthews and his possible motive in the incident, which started with a traffic stop on Ohio 21 south, near Edwards Street in Doylestown, just north of Clinton.
According to reports, Trooper Joseph Hershey attempted to stop a Ford Taurus driven by Matthews. The car is registered to Matthews’ wife, Catherine. The driver stopped briefly but only rolled down his window a crack and then continued south on Ohio 21.
Hershey said he stopped him again on Ohio 21. Matthews reportedly showed him a gun from under his car seat. Hershey backed away.
Matthews continued on Ohio 21 and pulled onto Cherry and then onto the field at the construction site, reports said.
Matthews bailed out of his car and began firing, the Highway Patrol said. The car, which had been left in drive, continued into the ditch at the edge of the old Agathon Field.
Hershey fired back, officials said. Taylor’s car followed Mat-thews about 100 yards from the curb. Taylor, who also fired back, was hit and dropped to the ground, reports indicated.
In all, three or four Massillon officers fired shots in addition to Hershey, who was not injured.
Stark County Coroner James Pritchard said Saturday Taylor, who was wearing a protective vest as is required by the Massillon Police Department, was struck in the buttocks by a bullet that traveled up through his body, damaging vital organs.
Matthews fired at police with a Czechoslovakian CZ-762x25 semiautomatic military handgun.
The pistol has a capacity to hold eight rounds and was produced from 1953 to 1970.
Mizeres said he still doesn’t know all the particulars in the case.
The chase “really wasn’t all that high speed until he (Matthews) stopped for the second time and then it reached speeds of up to 100 mph, from what I was told,” Mizeres said.
“The State Patrol officer (Hershey) notified their dispatcher who notified us, I believe by telephone, that the chase was coming into our city. I think they might have called Lawrence Township first through the Sheriff’s Department.”
Mizeres said Massillon officers were preparing to use “speed sticks” to stop the suspect but never got the chance.
“There’s always a concern about that (high speed chases),” he said. “I don’t know how much traffic was in that area at the time.”
Although the officer in charge of the shift has the ability to call off a chase for safety reasons in Massillon, the decision in this instance would have been left to the Highway Patrol because troopers initiated the chase, Mizeres said.
Saturday evening, agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, working based on a warrant approved by Massillon Municipal Judge Edward Elum, searched the home of Matthews, collecting several items.
A message left at the Youngstown ATF office Sunday seeking comment wasn’t returned.
“It’s a pending matter with the ATF,” Elum said Sunday, explaining he couldn’t comment on the particulars of the ATF search. “I will say that the ATF members were professional, knowledgeable and showed respect.”
Mizeres, however, said one of Massillon’s officers also was involved.
More ammunition fitting the gun involved in the shooting was taken as well as documents related to Matthews’ Constitutionalist group. A computer also was seized but has not yet been searched, Mizeres said.
“This tragedy has affected the entire city,” Elum said. “Officer Taylor was excellent and well thought of.”
“It’s been pretty tough for us,” said Evan Hannon, a balliff in Elum’s court. “We’re taking it one day at a time.
“God put Eric here for a reason. He died a hero.”
“The town has really come together in this tragedy,” Hannon added.
Funeral services have been announced for Massillon Police Ptl. Eric Taylor, who was killed Friday night during a shootout near the construction site of The Arena, on the corner of Cherry Road and First Street Northwest.
Calling hours for Ptl. Taylor are 3-9 p.m. Thursday at Stewart & Calhoun Funeral Home, 529 W. Thornton St., Akron.
The Massillon Police Department will post officers at his side during the public viewing. The family will be seated from 7-9 p.m.
More calling hours are planned 9-11 a.m. Friday at the House of the Lord Church, 1650 Diagonal Road, Akron. The funeral service will begin at 11 a.m. and the casket will be closed for the final time. There will be a designated area for Massillon Police Department officers.
Following the service, Ptl. Taylor will be buried in Mount Peace Cemetery in Akron.
A Cleveland-based bagpipe band will play during the processional and also at the grave site. Taps will be played and an honor guard will render a gun salute.
A police escort will be given to the Taylor family from Massillon to Akron.
Taylor is survived by his wife, JuWanna; a son, Tyree, 3; and a daughter, Lauren, 1.
Independent Staff Writer
A miniature police van sits nestled among flowers, bears and bouquets of flowers left at a makeshift memorial at the site where Massillon Police Ptl. Eric Taylor was killed Friday night.
Taylor, 31, died from a single bullet wound. He was shot near the construction site of The Arena, at the corner of Cherry Road and First Street Northwest.
Streams of people visited the site throughout the day Sunday to pay their respects to the fallen officer.
Some brought flowers while others just stopped by to say a prayer.
Michelle Street, of Massillon, was glad the memorial was there.
“Even when you don’t know somebody close,” she said, “it gives you someplace to go and say goodbye and have closure.”
Street brought flowers to the site Saturday.
“This doesn’t happen here,” she said, through her tears. “It happens other places. It doesn’t happen to people in our town.”
The memorial also drew people from outside the city who wanted to remember the slain officer.
Jackson Township resident Connie Nycum said she thought the memorial was nice.
“It’s a shame it has to be done at all,” Nycum said. “He was just here doing his job.”
Nycum brought her daughter Katie, 10, along with her to visit the site. Katie donated her favorite “bouncy” ball to the memorial.
For Marie Parks, of Canton, the visit was a bit more personal.
“My son just started the Police Academy this week,” she said. “So this hits home. He feels so strongly about serving his community. This is reality for the police. They face this danger every day. We forget that.”
By late Sunday afternoon, people had left teddy bears, a basketball, poems, a Policeman’s Prayer, a stuffed tiger, American flags, balloons, red, pink and white roses and carnations, a blue and white bunny and a Trooper bear.
Independent Staff Writer
Dave Gatto has distrusted the police and government before, but he says he’s more afraid now.
The Canton resident told The Independent in a Saturday interview that he was friends with Donald W. Matthews, the man who shot and killed Massillon Ptl. Eric Taylor before being killed by police gunfire.
Gatto said Saturday that Matthews was president of the National Constitutional Academy, which held sessions Tuesdays at the Denny’s on Tuscarawas Street West in Perry Township.
Law enforcement officers are investigating Matthews and his possible motive in the shooting, which started with a routine traffic stop.
The Ohio Highway Patrol said it is probing whether Matthews also was tied to a militia group.
“I learned a lot from him,” Gatto said of Matthews, 61, of 6688 Casper Ave. N.W., Jackson Township. “He was a religious man who showed self-control. He helped me return to church.”
Gatto said he wished Friday’s shootout wouldn’t have happened, but noted it occurred because the police weren’t following the Constitution.
A friend of Gatto, who declined to be identified, added the incident shouldn’t have happened, but blamed police for stepping over the line.
He insisted that Matthews was a man, while upset with the government, who wouldn’t have fired the first shot.
Matthews’ death, Gatto said, has made him hesistant to express his beliefs.
“My family tells me to stop, that I’m a grandfather,” he said. “But I’m God’s creation, not the state’s creation.”
Gatto and his associate contend the study group has nothing to hide and is only committed to studying the Constitution. Participants will continue to meet Tuesdays in meetings that are open to the public, he added.
Even so, Friday’s incident may mean more trouble for the Constitutionalists.
“Don said that the police were after him,” Gatto said. “He felt he was being staked out.”
According to Gatto, Matthews also was part of study sessions in Magnolia and a weekly session in Cleveland.
Massillon Municipal Judge Edward Elum noted that frivilous lawsuits are being filed in many courts by Constitutionalists.
“There’s a large group of people like this,” Elum said. “The Constitutionalists are alive and well.”
A recent Justice Department action, the judge said, has made it illegal to tie up the courts with these lawsuits.
Elum added he believed Matthews was a Constitutionalist and possibly a member of a local militia.
Gatto and his associate acknowledged that Matthews was part of the Consitutionalist study group, but denied he was part of a militia.