Stay safe; stay armed.
Posted on 08/10/2002 6:07:37 AM PDT by ResistorSister
The county coroner?
So did I. But Joe don't know nuthin' else!
More Grace and Mercy,.......In Jesus' Precious Name, Amen!!
...think you're an @sshole?
Betty boop should have posted her comments on this thread. Frankly, a guy who thinks he doesn't have to observe traffic laws is a menace to society. I'm surprised he lived this long.
Why don't you start by thinking yourself? IMO, that was one of the most tasteless posts in the history of FR...
Stay safe; stay armed.
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.
Well said, sinkspur. A few people here are defending the guy ONLY because he's a freeper. The guy killed a cop and a father and sounds to me like he was plum nuts.
Sadly, the human sentiment against murder was not unanimous on the deleted thread. There was one FReeper willing to praise the murder as a valid way to resolve the "constitutional crisis" of a traffic stop. Others were busy formulating conspiracy theories in their shallow minds. These sorts of vermin should be banned forthwith from the forum. We don't need monsters lurking and posting their bloody drivel.
Pulled on 08/10/2002 8:52 AM Eastern by Admin Moderator, reason:
Could be easily misconstrued as condoning violence against police officers.
You think that with everything going on around here lately they're getting a little jumpy.
Since the other thread was pulled, I won't repeat his name or his screen name. (If the relatives haven't been notified, or the real name hasn't been officially released, it would be in bad taste anyway.)
I did not recognize the screen name, and a search revealed no recent posts. He had some threads listed on his homepage, but only a few comments of his on those threads. Apparently he wasn't a frequent participant in the forum, but perhaps he lurked alot.
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