Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 4, 1995 TAG: 9510040063
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
State police officials have finished their investigation of the fatal shooting of a Blacksburg man by two police officers Aug. 9.
Phil Keith, Montgomery County commonwealth's attorney, said the report was delivered to his office Monday afternoon. It will be forwarded to Gino Williams, Floyd County commonwealth's attorney, who has been appointed special prosecutor to review the case and decide whether the officers were justified.
Blacksburg Police Chief Bill Brown asked for the state police investigation two days after the shooting death of Maurice Taylor, 22.
Taylor was being sought by authorities for failing to appear in court to answer to charges he violated his probation for a 1992 robbery conviction.
Three Blacksburg officers, acting on a tip, went to the South Main Street Revco drug store, where they found Taylor at a front counter.
Taylor was shot after he pulled what turned out to be a BB pistol - which looks like a large-caliber Desert Eagle weapon - and pointed it at two of the officers, police said. The third officer was behind Taylor, struggling with him and trying to wrestle the weapon away. That officer, Michael Mickey, was hit in the left thigh by gunfire from the other officers.
Taylor was shot 12 times. Three shots, to his lungs and neck, were fatal, a medical examiner said in August.
Brown refused to identify the two officers who fired the shots. Other sources identified them as J.E. Keene and T.D. Wimmer.
Last month, the FBI confirmed it is conducting a civil rights investigation into the shooting.
Memo: NOTE: Shorter version ran in Metro edition.