Posted on 08/14/2002 4:37:43 PM PDT by ResistorSister
JuWanna Taylor, widow of slain Massillon Patrolman Eric B. Taylor, is finding the strength to cope from the most precious gifts her husband gave her: their two young children.
``My children are what have kept me going,'' Taylor said Tuesday at the family's home in Massillon. ``You have to put you on the back burner. They need their mother.''
Taylor, 31, said she has tried to keep her children, Ty, 2, and Lauren, 1, as close to their regular daily schedules as possible since her husband was shot and killed Friday night while on duty. Eric Taylor, 31, joined the Massillon department in 1998.
``He's usually here,'' she said. ``Now, Mom's here instead of Dad. I've just tried to keep them in as much of a routine as possible.''
The routine for the household saw Tuesdays as Dad's day with the children, Taylor said.
``He let me have a day to myself. He was an excellent father.''
As the days go by, Taylor said, coping with her husband's death is becoming more difficult.
``When everything happened (on Friday), I just went numb. And since then, there has always been somebody here... This is the first time I've kind of been by myself,'' she said. ``The numbness is starting to wear off.''
Whether it was playing with the children or doing household chores, Taylor said her husband always took care of his family.
``There are not many men out there like that,'' she said, ``but my husband was. He cooked, he cleaned, he changed diapers. He did everything... We raised our children together.''
Taylor said she also has found comfort in the many friends and family members who have been by her side.
``We're just staying here and making sure she's OK,'' said JuMekia Jones, JuWanna Taylor's sister. Jones, 24, arrived from California on Saturday.
The first time Taylor saw her future husband, she knew he was someone special.
``I said to my friend, `Ooh, that's a cute guy,' '' Taylor said, remembering when they met in 1994. Her friend happened to know Eric and called him over.
``We exchanged phone numbers that night,'' Taylor said. ``On the way home, I told my friend, `He's going to be my husband.' ''
Five years later, he was.
Her husband's line of work was a worry for Taylor in the past.
``Lately, I didn't worry much at all,'' she said. ``I just thought this (Massillon) was a safe place to work.''
When one of Eric Taylor's fellow officers pulled into the family's driveway Friday night to inform JuWanna her husband had been shot, she thought it was her husband coming home, she said.
``My husband would check on us a lot,'' she said.
Even when the officer rang the doorbell, she still didn't think anything of it, she said.
``I just thought he forgot his key at work,'' she said. ``I just opened the door and walked away from it.''
When the officer told her that her husband had been shot, Taylor said she ``freaked out.''
``I froze,'' she said. ``I said, `I've got to get my babies.' ''
Taylor said Massillon police officers have shared information surrounding her husband's death so she can know as much as possible.
``He engaged the suspect, not knowing he was armed,'' she said officers told her.
Taylor said officers told her that her husband tried to exit his car through the passenger-side door when Donald W. Matthews, 61, of Jackson Township fired.
``The car was still in drive and kept rolling, but he managed to escape from the car,'' she said.
When the gunfire ceased, Eric Taylor, who was wearing a bulletproof vest, had been fatally shot. Matthews also had been shot dead.
While her husband always had a way of making others smile, Taylor said it was tough to get him to grin for a camera.
``He wasn't big on taking pictures,'' she said, laughing. Taylor said she had to ``basically beg'' her husband to sit for a family photo about six months ago.
``I am so glad I did that,'' she said.
Taylor said she has been overwhelmed by the community's outpouring of support.
``I can't express into words how appreciative I am and how it feels to know that he has gotten a response like this,'' she said.
Calling hours will be from 3 to 9 p.m. Thursday at the Stewart & Calhoun funeral home, 529 W. Thornton St. in Akron. There also will be calling hours from 9 to 11 a.m. Friday at the House of the Lord, 1650 Diagonal Road in Akron. The funeral service will begin at 11 a.m.
Following the ceremony, Eric Taylor will be buried at Mount Peace Cemetery, 183 Aqueduct St. in Akron.
JuWanna Taylor said the services may bring ``a small amount of closure.''
``But also then it's the beginning of a life without him,'' she said. ``That's going to be the toughest.''
If any anarcho-drivers had any shame we could just publish their names in the local paper, as if that would improve the safety of the streets. You really need to watch your ideological head and shake out the rage, the hopelessness, and the despair that is in there. When a policeman comes along to ticket your behavior, and assuming you're the fine sort who champions personal responsibility, then smile and thank the kind officer for taking the time to care about your safety, and for reminding you that you need to care about the safety of others. You may live well beyond Mr. Matthews' unbelievable 61 years.
Troubles with reading comprehension and taking other's comments in the wrong way becomes a problem sometimes if emotions get in the way of logic.
You're right - the letter was disgusting and vile.
Would you also agree it is "quite constitutional" for a state to require a license to operate the computer you are now using?.
You are ranting fringe nut nonsense. Some 50,000 people every year die in auto accidents. Easily twice that are injured or maimed. I haven't heard much about people being killed or injured in computer accidents. Have you ?
Someone who is driving well above the speed limit, or driving drunk, or disobeying stop signs and traffic lights is selfishly jeopardizing the lives of others and society has every right to deny people who refuse to take the lives and safety of others into account on the road access to the road.
But no need to imagine big steps. Just imagine if speeding fines were put into a tax refund pool and distributed to taxpayers each quarter, so that no PDs had an incentive to run revenue speed traps. Would enforcement of really hazardous driving improve, or get worse?
The average cop IS professional.
She says she never wanted her letter to upset people.
She meant no ill will toward the family and friends of slain Massillon Police Officer Eric B. Taylor.
She just hopes that after the shootout Friday night that took the lives of Taylor and Jackson Township resident Donald W. Matthews, police officers will learn not to stop people who are traveling the highways.
Emma Shlarp really is Heather M. Summers, a Canton woman who is known among self-proclaimed patriots in the area and outside Ohio.
Summers said Wednesday that she uses Emma Shlarp as a pen name for magazine articles and Internet postings. She said she uses “captain” because it’s the rank she attained while in the Army.
Summers also called herself Emma Shlarp when she co-hosted a national radio program linked to what the Anti-Defamation League calls the militia movement in the United States.
Nancy Koernke said she worked with Shlarp, who she also knew as Heather Summers, on a radio show in Michigan called the Kitchen Militia. Koernke and Summers said the program discussed current events, storing food, first aid and being prepared if the militia had to act.
“It was the caring, nurturing aspect women deal with,” Summers said.
Koernke is the wife of Mark Koernke, a convicted felon and once an avid leader and member of a “patriot” movement in Michigan, according to news accounts. Mark Koernke gained his greatest notoriety after the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995.
And Nancy Koernke knows about the letter Capt. Emma Shlarp left at a makeshift memorial for Taylor on First Street NW in Massillon. Police found the letter Sunday, and released it to media Tuesday.
Police viewed the letter as a threat that more officers will be killed if they try to issue traffic citations to constitutionalists.
Summers sent out a statement Wednesday afternoon saying she never intended to threaten anyone.
She said she’s not a formal member of a militia group, but called herself pro rule of law and pro constitutional government.
“We are the government,” she said. “How can I be against myself?”
Matthews was her friend, she said, but she didn’t meet with his study group. She doesn’t condone Matthews’ actions Friday if he was the person who shot first. But she does blame Ohio Highway Patrol Trooper Joseph Hershey for starting the chase that ended with Matthews and Taylor dead.
Police are investigating the shooting and have issued limited details.
Hershey apparently pulled Matthews over for speeding on Route 21 in Wayne County. Matthews stopped his car, but refused to cooperate with Hershey. He rolled his window down slightly, showed his license, said a few words and drove off.
Hershey followed. He told the Wooster Highway Patrol post he was chasing Matthews toward Massillon at about 70 mph. The patrol asked other police departments for help. Massillon officers answered the call.
Matthews turned off Route 21 onto Cherry Road NW and into a gravel lot next to The Arena construction site. When police arrived, he allegedly began shooting. One shot hit Taylor below his bulletproof vest. Other officers returned fire and killed Matthews.
Summers contends the chase started because Hershey wanted to generate revenue for the state by issuing a traffic citation. “If this guy hadn’t done that, none of this would have happened.”
The letter left at the memorial is an attempt to warn police officers to change their ways.
“This was meant to be a sharp letter, now I was hurting when I wrote it, but it was not designed to threaten or incite anyone else to violence,” Summers said.
Summers said she mourns Matthews, who was her friend. She admits his actions contributed to the shooting.
“But it all started with the state trooper who had to go out and collect revenue,” she repeated.
“Perhaps we should use greater discretion when we pull someone over for a violation,” she said. “The rules are supposed to be there for safety, not for revenue.”
Summers said she has talked to militia and constitutional groups about dealing with police when stopped for a traffic violation. She advises people to stop, show their license and registration, cooperate with the officer, accept the ticket and leave. The goal is to minimize the time spent with the police officer.
She wishes Matthews had followed her advise.
“I think Don handled the situation poorly.”
Nancy Koernke said she knows “very little” about what happened in Massillon, but she has seen the text — someone other than Summers e-mailed it to her — of the letter left at Taylor’s memorial.
She said Summers “is pro Constitution” and called her “a real genuine American.”
“As far as I know, she is a very conscientious person. In her community, she is a big help,” Nancy Koernke said. “She is working ... on the reclamation of her constitutional rights.”
Nancy Koernke is not surprised at the text in the letter, because of Summers’ military training.
“This is the way an intel-analyst (intelligence analyst) talks. They ... take data over a period of time and project what will occur. There is no threat here,” she said. “It’s just a prediction of the future.”
City Editor Terry DeMio contributed to this story.
You can reach Repository writer Edd Pritchard at (330) 580-8484 or e-mail:
Good grief, what a jerk.
Wonder what her FR screen name is?
You're bad. *smile*
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