TOLEDO, Ohio — When Officer Anthony Dia died after being shot in west Toledo on July 4, he became the 30th Toledo Police officer to be killed in the line of duty.
Officer Dia was responding to reports of an intoxicated man at the Alexis Rd. Home Depot parking lot when he was shot in the chest.
For as long as Toledo Policeman have been patrolling our streets and wearing the uniform and badge, they have too often been targets.
In the course of doing their jobs, they have find themselves in harm's way. The names and faces of those who have gone to work but never came home are honored every year at the Toledo Police Memorial in the Civic Center, lest we never forget.
It has been a little more than 13 years since Detective Keith Dressel was shot and killed by 15-year-old Robert Jobe.
An even longer span passed between Dressel's death and the previous line-of-duty death; 27 years.
Before that, line-of-duty deaths stretch all the way back to 1908, when Sgt. James Boyle was shot in the abdomen while responding to a robbery in progress.
The following officers' stories don't, by any stretch of the imagination, represent the totality of their lives or careers, but merely are offered to illustrate the senselessness of their deaths.
February 21st, 2007: Detective Keith Dressel was on patrol with other vice officers in North Toledo when they stopped two young teenage boys in the early morning hours. During questioning, one boy tried to run, and as Detective Dressel took pursuit, he was shot point-blank in the chest by the young suspect. Detective Dressel, after returning fire, was transported to St. Vincent Hospital where he died later that morning. A fifteen-year-old boy, Robert Jobe, was apprehended later, tried and sentenced to 18 years to life in prison. Keith Dressel left behind a wife, two small children and his grieving mother.
September 18th, 1970: Patrolman William Miscannon was assassinated at point-blank range while seated in his patrol car on Dorr Street. It happened as he and his partner Walter Shaw were on duty in their patrol wagon. They had stopped to get some food at an all-night diner at Junction and Dorr Street. Patrolman Shaw went inside to get the food. After he came out and got in the car, someone with a gun approached the car, pointed the muzzle at Officer Miscannon and fired. The shooting occurred near the Black Panther headquarters and set off tensions and conflicts for several days. A suspect was arrested and tried twice. Both trials resulted in hung juries. No one ever went to prison for his killing.
June 12th, 1962: Patrol Donald Brown was gunned down by a drunken enraged man who was threatening his family with a shotgun on 14th Street. Three officers responded to the initial call and upon arrival, the suspect began shooting. He first shot Officer Hayes, then shot Officer Brown and then Officer William Boyle, who had lost his brother, Officer Walter Boyle, in a shooting the year before. Officer Hayes recovered, Officer Boyle lost his sight in one eye, while Officer Brown lost his life. The suspect was taken into custody and sent to prison.
December 8th, 1961: Patrolman Walter Boyle was shot to death while pursuing a dangerous suspect in East Toledo. Boyle and his partner Officer Helman were trying to serve a warrant to Raymond Brothers at a house on Elmore Street. Brothers took flight and Officer Boyle followed. Officer Helman couldn't locate Officer Boyle; he later found Boyle's body a few blocks away, shot to death. Brothers was later found in a garage, dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Neither officer was aware that Brothers was considered dangerous, violent and homicidal when they went to serve the warrant. As a result of a subsequent WTOL-TV editorial about lack of information, the police department began adding key information on suspects when warrants are served.
November 18th, 1948: Patrolman Albert Fadell dies after his motorcycle was struck by a car three days earlier on Canton Avenue. His motorcycle was struck by a vehicle driven by James Bilbrey, a pitcher for the Toledo Mud Hens and the St. Louis Browns. Bilbrey said he couldn't see the motorcycle because of another parked car. Officer Fadell's death came just a year after he had joined the department after being discharged from the U.S. Army in 1947. Fadell was the 7th officer from the motorcycle squad killed in the line of duty.
July 3rd, 1948: Patrolman Harold Stevens was killed while on an emergency run as police were transporting a stabbing victim to Mercy Hospital. At Monroe and 17th Streets, another vehicle failed to yield the right of way to the emergency lights and sirens and struck the police car. Both cars overturned. Officer Stevens was killed and so was a person in the vehicle that struck them. Officer Stevens had first joined TPD in 1922 and left behind a wife and three children.
January 7th, 1947: Detective John McCarthy, a well-respected veteran of the police department, was shot and killed by a bad check suspect. McCarthy and his partner had just apprehended two men and a woman who were being investigated for trying to pass a bad $99 check. As they were being taken to jail in the patrol car, less than 150 yards from the Safety Building, one of the men pulled a revolver and demanded they stop the police car. Detective McCarthy grabbed the muzzle of the gun and was shot and later died. The other two officers in the car then killed the two male suspects in the car during their attempt to escape.
May 6th, 1944: Officer Fred Disel, an eleven-year veteran of the Toledo Police Department, had managed to survive gunshot wounds and several accidents during his career. But on May 1, while he and another motorcycle patrolman were chasing a hit-skip suspect's car, his motorcycle ran into two soldiers who were crossing Erie Street near the Safety Building. Officer Disel suffered several injuries, including a fractured skull. and died five days later.
August 11th, 1921: Patrolman Eddie Keim, a rookie who had been on the department for one month, was shot and killed by an armed robber at a gas station. It happened at Indiana and Heston Avenue at a White Starr station where Keim had gone to check out a report of a robbery. When he entered the station, suspect David Lee fired the shot that killed him. Other arriving officers shot and killed David Lee as he tried to flee. Officer Keim, a former prizefighter, was well-known and liked by many. Becoming a policeman was a lifelong dream of Keim's.
May 16th, 1931: Officer Edward O'Briest dies after being shot while working undercover. He was in disguise when he confronted a man with a jug of whiskey on Illinois Avenue in Toledo. The man's stepson saw his stepfather in a struggle with O'Briest and didn't know he was a policeman. The son came back with a gun and shot the unarmed Officer O'briest several times. He died from his wounds three days later on May 16.
April 16th, 1928: Patrolman George Zientara was shot and killed near Upton Avenue in a hail of machine-gun fire by bandits who had just robbed an armored truck of hundred of thousands of dollars. Officer Zientara and his partner, Officer John Biskupski had been tipped off that the robbers might be at 2304 Upton where their vehicle was in a garage. As they approached the house next door, shots rang out and Officer Zientara was shot in the head. His partner took cover and the robbers fled in the officers' patrol car. It was found later on 13th Street. The bandit killers were never arrested, but are believed to be a ruthless mob from Chicago, and some were alleged to have been the killers in the infamous St. Valentine's Day Massacre.
May 12th, 1925: Patrolman Walter Mullen was shot and killed by his partner's revolver as they pursued two suspects on the far north end of Front Street. Officer Fred Reasor says one of the men they were looking for had a gun in his hand, so he fired several times. One of the bullets went through a shed door and his partner Patrolman Mullen. The wound was not thought to be serious, but Mullen died eight days later from the wound.
January 29th, 1924: Detective William Julert lost his life while searching a suspicious character near Manhattan and Elm Streets. Julert and his partner Detective Langendorf were searching one of the suspects and had just found a gun. As Langendorf tried to remove the gun from the suspect's pocket, he slipped on the ice, fell, and his own revolver discharged, hitting Officer Julert in the back. He was rushed to the hospital and died 15 hours later with his wife and Det. Langendorf at his side.
September 6th, 1922: Detective William Martin, a 25-year veteran of the Toledo Police Department, was shot and killed by a man that he and his partner were pursuing as they investigated a suspicious car left in a garage on Fulton Street. The suspect shot Martin in the chest near his heart. His partner Charles Back was wounded in the leg. The suspects in the case were later apprehended in a daring capture by citizens of Wauseon. Detective Martin's wife had been begging him to retire and he kept saying, “In a few more days”.
August 13th, 1922: Officer Fred “Fritz” Bacon dies from head injuries after he was run down days earlier by an intoxicated driver. Officer Bacon had been directing traffic at Front and Main Streets in East Toledo with a semaphore at the time. A pedestrian was also struck but not as severely injured. Bacon, a four-year veteran of the department, had two young daughters and wife.
December 28th, 1921: Patrolman William Reed is shot by a suspect in what used to be known at the Canton Street murder zone, also known as “Death Valley”. He was chasing a bad check suspect when the suspect fired a bullet, hitting Reed in the chest. Reed lived just 20 minutes after getting to the hospital. He left behind a wife and six young children.
December 22nd, 1921: Patrolman Charles “Petie” McGuire is shot down by a pair of suspects he was attempting to question near Indiana and Division Streets. The handsome young officer was just starting his shift when informed of the burglary suspects nearby. It was reported that McGuire died near his boyhood home and on the very corner where he used to play as a boy. His mother and father heard the shot that took his life.
August 1st, 1921: Patrolman William Kress dies from a wound he suffered in downtown Toledo on Speilbusch Ave at State Street. He and his partner had been summoned there on reports of a man threatening people with a gun. When they arrived, the suspect opened fire on Kress, hitting him in the leg and severing an artery. He passed away on the third anniversary of his first day with the TPD.
June 9th, 1921: Patrolman Harold “Happy” Dowell, and Patrolman Harold Mossbrugger. Both officers were killed by a “lunatic” sniper named James Kelley who was shooting from a rooming house attic at 611 Walnut Street. Officer Dowell was killed first after responding to the call of a man with a gun at that address. He was standing on the street when a fatal shot struck him and he crumpled to the pavement where he lay for an hour before his body was pulled to the sidewalk. Meanwhile, his partner Patrolman Harold Mossbrugger, only six months on the department, tried lowering himself through a skylight in the roof to get to the suspect but died in the attempt. Finally, police ordered a machine gun brought to the scene and steady fire was directed toward the suspect for over an hour; the suspect was killed. Officer Mossbrugger was engaged to be married a few days later on June 20.
September 23rd, 1919: Officer George Zapf was killed while on duty when his motorcycle collided with a streetcar in downtown Toledo. Zapf, a two year veteran of the police department, was pulled under the streetcar and his legs were crushed. He was rushed to St. Vincent Hospital where he died the next morning.
April 1st, 1918: Officer Louis Jazweicki died at St. Vincent Hospital after being shot three times by a suspicious man he was questioning at Walnut and Erie Streets. Reports say the officer had encountered two men and asked who they were and what they were doing. He was going to arrest them when he didn't like their answer, and one man pulled a revolver and shot him. Officer Jazweicki managed to return fire but didn't hit the suspect. He was rushed to St. Vincent's Hospital where he died the next morning. He had spent less than a year in the department. A suspect, Custon Johnson, was eventually caught and sent to prison for life. His sentence was commuted after 47 years and he was set free by Governor Jim Rhodes.
August 25th, 1915: Patrolman Adolph Reimer died of blood poisoning from the bullet that had lodged in his neck when he was shot three weeks before on August 2. Officer Reimer and another officer were trying to force open a door of a suspect wanted for harming his wife when the suspect George Jackson fired and hit Reimer in the neck. Officer Reimer left behind a wife and two young sons.
January 21st, 1915: Detective Kaiser Bartecki was shot and killed by a domestic violence suspect near Lagrange and Kusciousko Streets. The gunman had already shot his girlfriend, and as Bartecki and other officers followed him to a nearby house, the suspect turned and shot Bartecki in the stomach. The wound was fatal. The suspect was apprehended. Detective Bartecki left a wife and two-year-old son.
August 7th, 1914: Patrolman Albert Schultz was shot and killed while responding to a burglar alarm at Englewood and Grand Street. The suspect they were looking for began running up a flight of stairs from a basement and started firing his gun. He shot and wounded one officer, and then one of the bullets struck Patrolman Schultz in the head. He was rushed to Robinwood Hospital but died on the way.
September 25th, 1911: Patrolman Harry Smith dies after he was injured while arresting two suspects on August 9. Smith, who had been on the department for one year, died at his father's home at 130 East Broadway in September. His body was taken to his former hometown of Pomeroy, Ohio buried in Meigs County, Ohio.
May 3rd, 1908 - Sgt. James Boyle was shot in the abdomen while he and his partner were in the process of apprehending three suspects from a boxcar robbery at Lafayette and Ontario Street. The 37-year-old officer died two days later at St. Vincent Hospital. He had been on the department since 1897 and left behind a wife and four children.