43
Falls chief lauds officers’ actions in fatal standoff
By Ed Runyan
NEWTON FALLS
Police won’t explain the exact circumstances surrounding a Friday night standoff between two police officers and a city man at a home on Newton Drive.
Police Chief John Kuivila said the scene resembled a TV drama more than what officers normally encounter in a small town.
But Kuivila says his officers did a “commendable” job of trying to preserve life, even though the man holding the gun, Wilbert D. Murray Jr., 52, of Ophelia Street, eventually killed himself.
Police charged Murray three weeks ago with felony counts of insurance fraud and making false reports. He had reported that tools and other items were stolen from his garage.
Murray has a criminal record in Newton Falls dating to 2004, when he was convicted of a misdemeanor offense of obstructing official business for confronting a police officer about Murray’s son.
A Newton Falls police officer was citing Murray’s son, 15 at the time, for riding a dirt bike on a roadway at a high rate of speed without a license, according to a 1996 Newton Falls Police report.
The officer told Murray his son would be cited and released, but Murray said if the officer arrested his son, the officer would have to “take me” and threatened the officer.
Murray was sentenced in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court in 1996 to a prison term of two to five years on theft-related charges while he was living in Warren.
Newton Falls Police said Friday’s incident began with a call from a woman at 11:31 p.m. who said Murray was at her home threatening to shoot her and a young man.
When officers arrived, they found Murray holding a gun to the head of a man in his early 20s or late teens, Kuivila said. Murray was holding a rifle in his other hand.
Kuivila declined to identify the man held hostage and said he doesn’t know how or why the standoff began.
Officers ordered Murray to drop the weapons, which he didn’t do, but the officers’ command seems to have “startled” Murray, and it allowed the hostage to escape, Kuivila said.
Officers then used a stun gun on Murray, but the device wasn’t able to penetrate a thick coat, and Murray escaped to a garage, where he shot himself in the head with the rifle. Murray was pronounced dead at the scene.
“They went above and beyond,” Kuivila said of the two officers involved.
Trying to subdue Murray with a stun gun instead of shooting him with their service revolver was commendable, Kuivila said.
The chief was not prepared to discuss what Murray said during the confrontation or whether Murray expressed any anger toward the officers about the charges police filed against him Oct. 6.
Murray was free on $2,500 bond on the insurance charges and was due back in Newton Falls Municipal Court on Nov. 15 for his next hearing.