Kerstetter

ELYRIA — Fallen Elyria police Officer James Kerstetter’s name was carved Tuesday into the black granite of a memorial for Lorain County police officers who have lost their lives in the line of duty.

Several Elyria police officers watched as Kerstetter’s name was added to the memorial outside the county jail.

An Elyria police dispatcher, who asked that her name not be used, said she felt compelled to watch Kerstetter join the other 13 officers whose names are on the monument. She said she still grieves for Kerstetter, whom she worked with for years.

“It’s still a tough pill to swallow, but I wanted to be here for it,” she said.

Kerstetter was fatally shot March 15 while responding to a call on 18th Street about a man who had exposed himself to a neighbor’s child. Two other Elyria police officers, Jay Loesch and Donald Moss, shot and killed Ronald Palmer, the man accused of shooting Kerstetter moments earlier.

Kerstetter died a short time later at EMH Regional Medical Center. The case remains under investigation, sheriff’s Capt. John Reiber said Tuesday.

Tim Stallman, who is associated with Lewis Monument Co., said he took great care to make sure that Kerstetter’s name looked perfect on the monument.

He said the process involves using a computer program to cut a rubber outline of the words to be inscribed. The outline is then stuck to the monument and sandblasted to cut the letters into the granite.

After that, Stallman said, white spray paint is used to make the officers’ names stand out. Stallman said the work to add Kerstetter’s name was a donation.

Sheriff’s Sgt. Randy Koubeck, who is active with the Greater Cleveland Peace Officers Memorial, also was on hand Tuesday to see Kerstetter’s name added to the memorial.

“Hopefully, it’s going to be the last one we put up there,” he said.

Kerstetter’s name will be added to the larger memorial in Cleveland during a May 21 memorial service. Kerstetter, whose badge number was 177, will be the 177th officer whose name is added to the Cleveland memorial, Koubeck said.

Next year, he said, Kerstetter’s name also will be added to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C. Kerstetter was killed after the cut-off date to have his name added to the national memorial this year.

Kerstetter’s name is the second name to be added to the Lorain County memorial in recent months. Al Leiby, a retired Elyria police officer who has a Web site paying tribute to fallen Lorain County officers, said Wellington city Marshal George Brenner’s name was added a few months ago.

Brenner was shot July 17, 1883, by John Young after a confrontation following a railroad office burglary, the Web site said.

The wounded Brenner managed to make it to his nearby apartment where he died in his wife’s arms, Leiby said.

Brenner’s name also will be added to the memorial in Cleveland in May, Leiby said. While people have long known of Brenner, Leiby said he only recently completed the research and obtained the necessary documents to get Brenner’s name on the memorials.

Contact Brad Dicken at 329-7147 or bdicken@chroniclet.com.

ELYRIA — Slain Elyria police officer James Kerstetter’s name was added this morning to a monument at the Lorain County Sheriff’s Office honoring Lorain County law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty. (more…)

Phillips

ELYRIA — Jeffrey Phillips, the Lorain man shot by North Ridgeville police who have said he tried to run two officers down last week, told officers he wanted them to shoot him and had wanted to kill a police officer, a prosecutor said during a hearing Monday.

“He made a statement regarding himself that he wanted the officers to shoot him in the head and he wanted to die,” Toni Morgan, a North Ridgeville prosecutor, told Elyria Municipal Court Judge Lisa Locke Graves. “He also made the statement that before they approached him he was going to run his (expletive) down and blow his (expletive) brains out, referring to the officers.”

Locke Graves called Phillips, 30, a “risk to the community” before setting his bond at more than $160,000. He is charged with felonious assault, failure to comply, resisting arrest and several traffic violations.

North Ridgeville police Lt. Michael Freeman and patrolmen Dean Mraz and Josh Riley went to Morris Cadillac Buick Pontiac GMC at about 2 p.m. Thursday to arrest Phillips on a domestic violence warrant out of Lorain. Phillips is accused of attacking his sister, Heidi Deloach, earlier in day.

The officers chased Phillips briefly on foot before he got into his 2002 Chrysler 300, “rammed his vehicle free and sped toward officers with their guns drawn and tried to run them down,” according to a search warrant for Phillips’ vehicle unsealed Monday.

North Ridgeville police Capt. Allan Dent said Mraz and Freeman opened fire on Phillips, who police have said was struck three times. Police recovered a bullet and bullet fragments from the Chrysler 300, according to the warrant.

Police Chief Rick Thomas said Mraz and Freeman fired at Phillips in self-defense because they feared for their lives.

Phillips then led police on a high-speed chase to his home on East 41st Street in Lorain, where he was arrested during a struggle with officers after jumping from his still-moving car, according to police.

The official account stands in stark contrast to what Deloach and Phillips’ family believe happened.

Deloach said her brother had planned to turn himself in on the warrant after completing work for the day, and when he saw the officers arrive at the car dealership he planned to surrender, even though he was leery of police because of an Oct. 12, 2008, incident.

In that incident, Phillips was arrested on a DUI charge following another high-speed pursuit. After being taken to the now-closed Elyria City Jail, he struggled with officers and was slammed face-first into a brick wall by a corrections officer, who later was punished. Phillips ended up with a $20,000 settlement from the city and a fear of police, Deloach said.

Phillips is currently on parole for a 2002 armed robbery and high-speed chase that sent him to prison for six years.

Deloach said her brother told her that police opened fire even though he had done nothing to provoke them.

“He said as soon as he was walking forward, they just started shooting at him,” she said.

Her brother, whose arms are encased in foam pads to protect him from aggravating his injuries during his arraignment Monday, was shot in the left shoulder, the left wrist and left hand, Deloach said. She said he also told her he had been wounded in the right hand.

Jack Bradley, Phillips’ attorney, said he has yet to talk with his new client, who is due back in court Wednesday.

“All I know is that the charges are serious, and we’ll take a look at it and see what happens,” he said.

Mraz, 42, and Freeman, 40, were placed on leave following Thursday’s shooting per department policy.

Dent said both men were cleared to return to work today, but Freeman’s scheduled days off are today and Wednesday and Mraz had previously requested time off this week.

Both men are veteran officers — Mraz has been with the department for 15 years and Freeman has 16 years on the job — with personnel files full of commendations and praise from citizens for their work.

Mraz also spent time in Fairfax, Va., as a police officer and while serving in the Marine Corps. He is praised in his file for his work as a detective, for his role in dealing with a 2006 car chase and for handling calls ranging from armed robbery to theft and burglary.

Freeman, who became a lieutenant in 2003, had an equally positive file, earning commendations for his handling of another car chase, catching a drug dealer while working on an unrelated case, helping end a high-speed chase while off duty and for the compassionate way he told a mother her son had died.

Both men also have complimentary letters in their files from citizens they pulled over for speeding.

Contact Brad Dicken at 329-7147 or bdicken@chroniclet.com.