Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, August 11, 1995 TAG: 9508110067
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: STEPHEN FOSTER AND SHANNON D. HARRINGTON STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Long
A Blacksburg police officer was struggling with Maurice Taylor, trying to wrestle away what turned out to be a BB gun, when two other officers shot Taylor 10 times.
Officer Michael Mickey, who is recovering from a gunshot wound to the leg, said Taylor went for the gun after the three officers confronted him Wednesday afternoon in the Revco drugstore on South Main Street. The officers were trying to serve papers on Taylor for failing to appear in court for a parole violation hearing.
Mickey said he immediately grabbed Taylor by the throat and arm and began wrestling with him for the gun, which looks strikingly like a .45-caliber pistol. At close range, however, a BB pistol, which propels a projectile with compressed CO2 gas, can be dangerous, even fatal
``I couldn't turn him loose. I thought it was a .45 [caliber],'' Mickey said in a hospital interview Thursday.
When Taylor pointed the gun at the two officers in front of him, they moved to their left, drew their weapons and fired. Mickey was behind Taylor and was shot in the left thigh by one of the other officers.
Taylor, who police said never fired a shot, fell face down on the floor. He was pronounced dead on arrival at Montgomery Regional Hospital.
Mickey estimated that 10 to 15 shots were fired. Dr. David Oxley, the deputy chief medical examiner for Western Virginia who performed Taylor's autopsy Thursday, said Taylor was shot about 10 times.
``I can see it all vividly in my mind,'' Mickey said. ``Even when I was falling to the ground, I was still hearing the shots fired.
``The things that [Taylor] did made absolutely no sense. We didn't know it was a BB gun. ... I just don't know what he was thinking.
``The only thing we were thinking about was survival.''
Blacksburg Police Chief Bill Brown, a veteran of almost 26 years, said he could not remember another time when a Blacksburg officer had shot and killed someone.
While police expressed regret but said the shooting was justified, several of Taylor's relatives said the image of one officer holding the 22-year-old Taylor from behind in what they called ``a choke hold'' while two others fired 10 slugs from their 9mm handguns into him suggests the police used unnecessary force.
``A little guy like [Taylor] was, they could have pulled him on the ground,'' said Robert Peoples, Taylor's uncle. ``Anyone who knows anything about guns ... a 9mm would stop a mule. You don't need five or six shots to stop a 120-pound man.''
Police described Taylor as 5 feet 9 inches tall and 150 pounds.
Court records show that Taylor was convicted in 1992 of robbery, and that he had failed to appear in Montgomery County court July 14 for a parole violation hearing. Records also showed he had been convicted of assault and had an extensive juvenile record.
Taylor played football at Pulaski High School but never graduated. He had lived in several places in the New River Valley, said his 13-year-old brother, Richie Austin. A few weeks ago, Taylor moved to Charlotte, N.C. He had been back in Blacksburg less than a day and planned to return to Charlotte as soon as possible, Austin said.
On Thursday, Austin, Peoples and two of Taylor's cousins, standing on the lawn of the Ardmore Street house where Taylor had lived off and on, disputed the Police Department's explanations.
``That was murder, and probably won't nothing be done about it,'' said Brad Taylor, a cousin.
Peoples questioned the number of times police shot Taylor and suggested that police were looking for a fight when they sent three officers to Revco.
``Why couldn't they wait until he came outside?'' he said. ``It was a matter of, `We gotta get him now.' I just don't see that.
``Too much force, too much force.''
But police painted a much different picture.
``A police officer has a right to protect a life,'' Chief Brown said. ``If I'm going to pull my weapon in fear of my life, I'm going to shoot until the threat is gone.
``That's reasonable.''
Brown said the preliminary investigation showed the officers followed departmental guidelines. A full internal investigation will be completed within two weeks, and the results will be presented to the commonwealth's attorney's office.
Until then, the two officers - whom Brown refused to identify, citing concerns for their safety - have been placed on administrative leave.
Reclining in a bed at the hospital, Mickey described what happened after he and the other officers received a tip around 4 p.m. that Taylor was at Revco.
The officers had been told earlier that Taylor may have been carrying a gun, Mickey said. But given Taylor's history of running from authorities, they decided that confronting him inside the store would give them a better chance of apprehending him.
``He was probably going to jackrabbit on us'' if given a chance, Mickey said.
``I don't think they really anticipated the magnitude of his response,'' Brown said.
According to Mickey and Brown, the three officers entered the store and saw Taylor standing at a cashier's counter. Pretending not to notice Taylor, Mickey walked behind him, and the other officers asked him, ``Are you Maurice Taylor?''
Taylor said he wasn't, but the other officers said, yes, he was. It was then, Mickey said, that Taylor went for his gun.
``I wish he had chosen a different path,'' said Mickey, a six-year veteran.
Taylor was hit mainly in the neck and chest, the area police are trained to aim for, Brown said.
It's unfair to use ``Monday-morning quarterbacking'' to judge the officers' response, he said.
Brown, who said he has known Taylor's family for 20 years and Taylor himself ``since he had diaper rash,'' said he wanted to give family members and friends a cooling-off period before releasing the names of the officers who shot Taylor.
After Mickey was taken to the emergency room Wednesday night, some of Taylor's friends arrived there, Brown said. Told their friend was dead, at least one began asking, ``Where's the cop?'' Police have provided around-the-clock security for Mickey at the hospital and are investigating possible threats against the officers.
``We are taking these threats very seriously,'' Brown said. ``We want our people to feel secure.''
The shooting can only add to the concerns of area authorities, who have seen two of their fellow officers killed in the past year. Christiansburg Police Officer Terry Griffith was killed in September by a shoplifter he tried to arrest. In December, Wythe County Deputy Cliff Dicker was shot while serving an arrest warrant. Later that month, Pulaski Police Officer John Goad was stabbed severely.
Wednesday's shooting, Brown said, ``lets people know this business is dangerous. Nothing is ever routine.''
Staff writer Kathy Loan contributed information to this story.
Keywords:
FATALITY
by CNB