Police Kill Shooter

Police kill shooter
'It was a running gun battle,' Streicher said
BY JESSICA BROWN

SOUTH FAIRMOUNT – For the second time in nine days, Cincinnati police officers shot a suspect Sunday, this time fatally.

Police killed a man who had fired at two officers after they confronted him for allegedly stealing ice cream from a convenience store, Police Chief Tom Streicher said.

Four officers fired back at the unidentified man, Streicher said. The chief described it as a “running gun battle” along several blocks of Queen City Avenue.

The man bought some ice cream and stole some ice cream from the UDF store at Queen City and Quebec Avenue, according to police. Police went to the scene to investigate the alleged theft, when the man came back into the store.

“He walked back into the store to get a spoon,” Streicher said.

Great to see that people are willing to kill cops after stealing some ice cream. If anything proves that we need a better system of public education, it is the moronic activities of our criminals. You could at least make an economic argument for the cost vs. benefit of robbing a bank or a Brinks truck with a gun. But this guy is willing to go to the wall and kill cops over Ice Cream. At that point it is time to thin the herd. I hope he liked that ice cream.

An officer spotted him and asked to pat him down. The man took off running east down Queen City Avenue, police said. The officer gave chase and pulled out his Taser.

“The man drew his gun, turned, and we’re not sure if the man fired the gun first or the officer fired the Taser first,” Streicher said. The Taser missed, shots were exchanged between the man and the officer and the man kept running, police said.

If you run from the cops they are allowed to use non lethal weapons like a taser. It has to suck to be a cop with a non lethal weapon when somebody is firing live ammo at you. And if the guy is whacked out on drugs like Ken Lawson, he might not even have the same biological response to your taser like a normal person would.

As the suspect passed a second officer he fired at her too with a small-caliber gun, police said. She dove for cover, injuring herself in the process, and fired back, police said. Two more officers arrived and told the man to stop. One of them fired at the man and he fell to the ground, police said.

Another officer approached the man as he lay on the ground and the man pointed his gun at the policeman. The officer fired another shot.

The Hamilton County Coroner’s Office pronounced him dead at the scene.

By this account, the man fired at two officers and aimed his gun to fire at another before he died.

It is unclear why the man ran, or why he fired at officers, the chief said. It is also unclear whether he was struck by gunfire or whether something else might have killed him, Streicher said.

Again, a good time to thin the herd.

“We emphasize in training to never underestimate what you’re walking into,” Streicher said. “It’s a dangerous game of cat and mouse.” He said police recover 1,600 to 1,800 guns a year from the streets.More than 20 people witnessed Sunday’s shooting, Streicher said.

With all the guns and violence on our streets, we need to give it up to the Men and Women in Blue that risk their lives to our protection. I wouldn’t want that job. I am damn glad they are out there and I appreciate their sacrifice. God Bless them.

A couple of people at the scene criticized police as too quick to draw their guns.

Angela Jo James, a neighborhood resident, said she can’t understand why the suspect would have reacted the way he did.

“Someone in his right mind wouldn’t have did nothing like that,” she said. “He lost his life over some ice cream. Unnecessarily.”

Those quotes come from one person and don’t seem critical of the police as too quick to draw their guns. I was wondering who criticized the police for drawing their guns and what they were actually saying. I want to see those comments attributed to actual names. This guy fired on two officers and aimed at a third before being taken out. This guy fired bullets at police before any were fired on him, and “police were to quick to draw their guns”? They only guy able to come out in defense of those actions would be a crackhead like Ken Lawson.

This is the fourth time Cincinnati police have shot suspects in the past year.

Shane Welch, 19, also known as Shane Myers, of Mount Auburn, was critically injured May 18 in Over-the-Rhine when an officer shot him twice in the chest. Police say Welch was running toward officers with his gun pointed at them.

On April 20, an officer shot a man in the arm in the West End after the man, who was running from the officer, stumbled, reached into his waistband and tried to pick up a gun that had fallen out of his pants.

Last September, another officer shot an armed robbery suspect in West Price Hill after the man pointed a gun at the officer.

What an impressive history. Four guys with weapons threatening police officers.

Let's say you are a police officer in this type of environment. You are chasing a suspect into a dark alley in Over The Rhine and the alley ends up being a dead end with no way out.. The suspect turns around and reaches into his pants for his firearm….that is exactly what Steven Roach thought, and that was the only blemish on his police record.

You have people shooting cops over ice cream, yet it is absurd to think that Tim Roach was acting in good faith in a dark alley?

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BONUS COVERAGE:

Are we setting up another riot with every police killing? Look at the killings that predated the last riot and see how they compare:

Adam Wheeler. Wheeler, 21, died when a drug investigation turned into a chaotic shootout inside a Corryville apartment on Jan. 31, 2001. Wheeler - wanted on three open felony warrants, two for aggravated armed robbery, one for attempted abduction - was shot after screaming, ''You want a war? You got a war!'' to police responding to a drug complaint. A gun was recovered near his body, police said. Wheeler had convictions for cocaine possession in 1999 and 2000 and twice served seven months in prison. One police officer also was shot in the hand in the incident.

Jeffrey Irons. Suspected of shoplifting from an IGA supermarket in Pleasant Ridge, Irons was shot and killed during a Nov. 8, 2000, scuffle with police in which he grabbed one officer's gun and wounded another in the hand. Irons, 30, of Chicago, had been convicted locally of a dozen offenses in the past six years, including felony drug abuse and resisting arrest.

Roger Owensby Jr. The 29-year-old College Hill man died on Nov. 7, 2000, after a struggle with officers who arrested him outside a Roselawn gas station where he had just purchased an energy drink. According to a store security camera, Owensby fully cooperated with police until he was about to be handcuffed, when he bolted and was quickly tackled by officers. Officers sprayed him with a chemical irritant, handcuffed him and placed him in the back of a police cruiser, where he was found unconscious shortly thereafter. He later died of what of a coroner's report termed ''mechanical asphyxiation.''

Courtney Mathis. Mathis, 12, and officer Kevin Crayon both died on Sept. 1, 2000 , after Crayon tried to stop a car being illegally driven in Mount Airy by the underage motorist. When confronted by Crayon, Mathis sped away in the car, dragging the officer nearly 800 feet. While clinging to the car, Crayon fatally shot Mathis in the upper left chest, then was killed instantly seconds later when his head slammed into another car.

Alfred Pope. Pope died in a hail of gunfire from Cincinnati police in the early- morning hours of March 14, 2000, after the 23-year-old Bond Hill man and an accomplice allegedly pistol-whipped, robbed and shot at a group of other men in the hallway of an Avondale apartment.

Carey Tompkins. Tompkins, 28, was shot and killed on Oct. 16, 1999, in a West En d hallway by a Cincinnati police officer who had responded to 911 call in which an operator overheard people arguing and references to a gun. After arriving, officers, peering through cracks in a door, saw Tompkins standing in a narrow staircase leading to a second-story residence. When Tompkins opened the door, an officer put his hand out to keep Tompkins from leaving and felt a gun in his waistband, police said. When Tompkins started back up the stairs and pulled the gun out, an officer shot him four times.

James King. After robbing a bank in Corryville on Aug. 20, 1999, King was shot a nd killed by four officers when he refused to obey their order to drop his gun, instead turning toward them with his weapon. Police chased King, who had an extensive criminal history, after a robbery at the Fifth Third Bank, 30 W. Corry St. In the robbery, King gave the bank's assistant manager a note demanding money and saying that he was armed and was prepared to take hostages and kill employees and police. Before fleeing the bank, King fired a shot at one of the tellers but missed. Police pursued him to the University of Cincinnati campus, where they said he jumped out of his car and ignored their orders to surrender, prompting their gunfire.

Michael Carpenter. Carpenter, 30, an unarmed black motorist from Mount Airy, was shot and killed by Cincinnati police during an early-morning struggle in Northside on March 19, 1999. The shooting occurred after two officers - Brent McCurley and Michael Miller - saw Carpenter acting suspiciously in a convenience store, followed his car and stopped him for an expired license plate. The officers said Carpenter refused to get out of his car, began reaching between the car's seats, dragged Miller a few feet as he leaned into the vehicle attempting to remove Carpenter and then attempted to back his car into McCurley. The police internal-affairs unit said the officers violated several procedures during the traffic stop but used lethal force justifiably.

Randy Black. A University of Cincinnati student, Black, 23, was shot to death on July 17, 1998, after police say he attempted to rob a campus credit union. Police said Black, of Evanston, threw a chunk of concrete at a Cincinnati police officer, then advanced on him with a nail-studded board after fleeing the Tangeman University Center in Clifton. An officer fired two shots, hitting Black twice in the torso. The officer suffered a minor arm injury where he was struck by the concrete, police said.

Jermaine Lowe. On June 3, 1998, Cincinnati police in Over-the-Rhine tried to pull over a stolen car being driven by Lowe, who suddenly sped away. Chased by police, Lowe crashed into another car in Corryville, then leaned out the car window and began shooting at three officers. The officers shot back, killing Lowe. The 21-year-old Mount Auburn man already had served nearly five years in prison for robbery, had broken parole and was being sought for a recent armed robbery.

Daniel Williams. On Feb. 2, 1998, Williams, 41, who had a history of criminal and mental problems, flagged down a police cruiser being driven on Central Parkway by a 23-year-old female officer. Williams pulled a .357-caliber Magnum and shot the officer four times in the leg and abdomen below her bulletproof vest, then shoved her to the passenger side, got behind the wheel and sped away. Though wounded, the officer was able to pull her gun and kill Williams.

Lorenzo Collins. Collins was gunned down on Feb. 23, 1997, after threatening several officers, including a Cincinnati police officer and a University of Cincinnati officer who both fired at him, with a brick. He had just escaped from University Hospital's eighth-floor psychiatric ward, where he was being held at the request of a suburban police department.

Darryl C. Price. The 42-year-old Corryville man died on April 4, 1996, after striking his head while struggling with officers.

Police had been called to investigate a ''violent mental subject'' after a passersby reported a man was screaming and running in and out of traffic. When officers arrived, they found Price jumping on the hood of a car at Martin Luther King and Eden Avenue. As officers tried to handcuff him, he resisted. Officers then wrestled Price to the ground and handcuffed him. But as they tumbled to the ground, Price struck his head on a metal plate covering road construction, police said.

Harvey Price. A 34-year-old ex-convict from Avondale, Price was shot five times after he lunged with a knife at officers who had tried repeatedly to subdue him after he killed and partially decapitated his girlfriend's 15-year-old daughter with an ax. An autopsy later determined that Price had taken cocaine within 12 hours of the Feb. 1, 1995, incident.