Shooting by cop befuddles

The dead man owned a 4-wheel-drive repair shop.

By ED RUNYAN

VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF

MECCA TOWNSHIP — The businessman and father of two killed by a deputy during a gunbattle Saturday morning was a motorcycle enthusiast who participated in fundraisers and community projects, a friend says.

Lois Palette of Gustavus said she and her husband, William Palette, met John W. McGrath Jr., 48, of Saddler Krohler Road, Farmdale, about 10 years ago when he coached their daughter in youth league softball.

“I watched him with the kids, and he was good with them. He seemed like a very nice man,” Palette said, adding that McGrath assisted his wife, Paula, as coach and also had a daughter on the team.

William Palette later coached McGrath’s son, J.W., who is a member of the Air Force, in youth baseball, she said.

In addition, McGrath helped organize numerous motorcycle-ride fundraisers over the years that supported baseball and softball. Some of the money went toward construction of baseball batting cages at the former Joseph Badger High School on state Route 7 in Kinsman, she said. McGrath was also part of a team of volunteers that built the batting cages, she said.

McGrath owned Mosquito 4-Wheel Drive, a repair shop on state Route 88 west of Mosquito Lake. The shop is a couple miles from the house where McGrath died, at 6868 Hoagland Blackstub Road in Mecca Township.

Earl Weeks, who owns Earl’s Mufflers across the street from Mosquito 4-Wheel Drive, said McGrath was a “super nice guy.”

Trumbull County Sheriff Thomas Altiere said he doesn’t know a lot of details about why McGrath was at the Hoagland Blackstub Road home Saturday and he hopes to learn more on Wednesday when he meets with investigators from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation.

They are involved in the investigation, along with Sheriff’s Detective Sgt. Peter Pizzulo, Altiere said. BCI was called in so that the department would not be investigating itself, Altiere said.

McGrath, 48, of Saddler Krohler Road, died after being shot by Deputy Anthony Diehl when the deputy was called to the residence twice by neighbors who suspected a burglary was taking place at the house.

Altiere said Diehl responded to a call at 10:30 p.m. Friday of two people trying to shoot the lock off at the Hoagland-Blackstub Road home. When Diehl got there, no one was there.

Diehl responded again when the same neighbor reported two people were breaking into the house at 12:55 a.m. Altiere said that when Diehl arrived, he parked on the road and walked up the drive. He saw a man, later identified as McGrath, come out of the door with a filing cabinet. McGrath threw the cabinet into the back of a truck.

When Diehl ordered McGrath to stop, McGrath turned and fired at the deputy, Diehl said. The shot missed, and Diehl returned fire, hitting McGrath in the torso. McGrath was pronounced dead later at a hospital, apparently St. Elizabeth Health Center in Youngstown.

Mahoning County Coroner David M. Kennedy issued a press release Monday saying McGrath’s body was taken to the Cuyahoga County Coroner’s office for an autopsy. The body went to Cuyahoga County from St. Elizabeth Health Center in Youngstown, not University Hospital Hospitals in Cleveland, as had been previously reported by Altiere.

Kennedy could not be reached to say where McGrath was pronounced dead.

The second person caught at the home, a 25-year-old woman, was questioned and released without being charged, Altiere said. On Monday, Altiere said he still didn’t know the woman’s role in the episode.

Altiere placed Diehl on paid administrative leave for three to five days. Altiere said putting an officer on such a leave is standard practice in most police departments as a way to allow the officer to “kick back and get the adrenaline down” before they return to normal duties.

Diehl has worked for the department since 1997.

runyan@vindy.com