By DAVID SKOLNICK

By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
AUSTINTOWN -- Gentle, kind, caring, always willing to help people.
Those are the words longtime friends used to describe Michael Hartzell, the Youngstown police officer killed today.
Hartzell, 26, was remembered fondly by teachers and administrators today at Austintown Fitch High School, from where he graduated in 1995, and where his mother, Mary Kay Hartzell, has spent more than 15 years as high school treasurer.
Hartzell came from a long line of Youngstown police officers, said Della McPherson, his former high school math teacher and a close family friend. Hartzell's maternal grandfather and his great uncles were Youngstown police officers, she said.
Before joining the Youngstown police force in December 2000, Hartzell worked as an auxiliary officer for the Austintown Police Department, a volunteer firefighter and an emergency medical technician.
"He always wanted to help people," McPherson said. "He loved police work. He was just a really, really good human being."
Hartzell was to be married to his fianc & eacute;e, Stephanie, in August; the bridal shower was scheduled for next week, McPherson said.
Community reaction
Doug McGlynn, Fitch principal, had the flag at the school lowered to half staff. The flag outside the Austintown Police Department, where Hartzell worked for about six months, was also lowered today in his honor.
McGlynn knew Hartzell for about 15 years, and the officer's mother served as McGlynn's secretary when he was an assistant principal.
Hartzell worked as an aide at the high school office while attending Fitch, and he played community baseball, McGlynn said.
"He was a great kid from a great family," said McGlynn, only minutes after returning to the school from the Almerinda Drive home of Hartzell's mother.
"He always wanted to help people, and he wanted to do that by being a police officer. It was something he always wanted to do, and God bless him, he got to do it."
McPherson said Hartzell was a good student who always smiled and laughed.
"Everyone liked him," she said. "He was very gentle and very kind."
McGlynn said the death is a tragic loss.
"It's not only a loss for the police force, but for his family, the high school and everyone who knew him," he said. "He was such a good person. It's so tough to lose those people."
skolnick@vindy.com