Cop killer commits suicide

The second anniversary of the officer's death was April 29.
By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Cop killer Martin L. Koliser Jr., found dead in his death row cell with cuts to his upper arms, took the coward's way out, the city police union president says.
Koliser was found on the floor in front of his bunk at the Mansfield Correctional Institution at 5:30 a.m. Saturday and the coroner was called, said Andrea Dean, Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction spokeswoman in Columbus.
"It appears to be a suicide. The Ohio State Highway Patrol is investigating," she said.
Dean said death row inmates, housed one to a cell, are checked every 30 minutes, and Koliser was alive at 5 a.m. Saturday. She declined to say what method he used to end his life. He was not on a suicide watch.
Sgt. Stephanie Norman, OSHP spokeswoman in Columbus, said Koliser had scratches to his upper arms and possibly suffocated.
She said the guards who found him thought he appeared to have suffocated. She didn't know what may have been used for either self-inflicted injury.
Norman said the body will be taken to Cleveland for autopsy. Dean said it was the second death row suicide since 1996, when Jason Kidwell took his own life. She didn't know the manner of that death.
Koliser was placed on death row Nov. 7, 2003. He marked his 32nd birthday April 11.
"I'm sure it's a scary process, waiting to be put to death," Patrolman Ed Colon, Youngstown Police Association president, said Saturday. "I would say he took the coward's way out. He always acted like a tough guy."
Koliser ambushed 26-year-old Patrolman Michael T. Hartzell at 2:19 a.m. April 29, 2003, as the officer sat in his cruiser at a red light at Federal Street and Vindicator Square. Hartzell, dead at the scene, was on his way to the police station two blocks away to file reports.
"No, it's not a relief. He took my son," Hartzell's mother, Mary Kay, said Saturday, crying on the phone. "It's over, I guess. I don't know how I feel -- maybe mad that he did it that way."
Koliser's life
Colon said Koliser, who lived in a group home when he attended Wilson High School, had problems.
He was destined for a life of crime -- assault, robbery, maybe drugs, a former Wilson High School principal said after the police shooting. The principal recalled Koliser as a troubled, rebellious teenager.
Police Chief Robert E. Bush Jr. had no comment.
One officer who asked that his name not be used suggested that maybe Koliser killed himself because he didn't want to return to Youngstown. In July, death row inmates will be relocated to the Ohio State Penitentiary on Coitsville-Hubbard Road.
Police once described Koliser as a predator and an ex-con without a lot of options who sold drugs to support himself. Despite no visible means of support, he had an apartment in Boardman.
Koliser was on parole when he ambushed Hartzell and wounded Donell J. Rowe outside a West Side bar about two hours earlier. Koliser, who served nearly six years for stabbing a roommate in Salem, was put on three years' parole Dec. 12, 2002.
Koliser was seen twice by his parole officer in early April 2003, taking a drug test on the second visit. The result -- he tested positive -- wasn't back for two weeks, said Sara Simila, field services superintendent for the Adult Parole Authority in Columbus.
There wasn't enough time, after the result was back, to impose a sanction before the parole authority received information about the police officer's being shot, Simila told The Vindicator in November 2003.
While incarcerated for stabbing his roommate, Koliser had four major rules infractions, mostly for fighting with other inmates, with one classified as creating a disturbance, JoEllen Culp, ODRC spokeswoman in Columbus, said in May 2003. Details of the events were not public record.
For each infraction, Koliser spent up to 15 days in a solitary disciplinary unit. Extra punishment was imposed for one violation and he spent five more months in the unit, Culp said.
Koliser fled to Palm Harbor, Fla. after killing Hartzell and was arrested by police within roughly 30 hours of the shooting.
Koliser, who described himself to those who aided in his capture as a warrior and survivalist, had been in and out of jail and prison since turning 18.
Remembering Hartzell
A year ago, with a backdrop of glowing candles, Hartzell's name was read aloud in Washington, D.C., at a ceremony honoring peace officers who died in the line of duty.
The May 13, 2004, candlelight vigil was held at the National Law Enforcement Officers memorial in a park on Judiciary Square. At each pathway entrance sits a massive bronze lion guarding its cubs. The statues symbolize the protective role of law enforcement.
Bordering the lush acreage are two blue-gray marble "pathways of remembrance" walls. Engraved on the walls are the names of nearly 17,000 officers who died in the line of duty since 1792.
Hartzell's name is engraved on panel 28-E, line 23.
Last year, Patrolman Chad Zubal, who attended the ceremony, had Hartzell's badge No. 1085 tattooed on his right forearm. Zubal and Hartzell had been best friends.
Last week, on the second anniversary of Hartzell's death, roughly 70 officers, family members and others gathered for a quiet moment outside the former Master's Tuxedo on Federal Street at Vindicator Square. Hartzell and other fallen officers will be remembered Wednesday at St. Maron Church during Police Memorial Week.
Since Hartzell's death, an annual golf outing was established to raise funds for a scholarship in his name at Youngstown State University. Special consideration is given to children of police officers, YSU students enrolled in the police academy and graduates of Austintown Fitch High School, Hartzell's alma mater.
meade@vindy.com