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Kinsman man killed by police after Route 11 chase
By Joe Gorman
LIBERTY
Police say a Kinsman man who led them on a chase down state Route 11 Friday and who was shot and killed by police had a handgun, but they did not say whether he pointed it at police or if he fired any shots.
Cody Dempsey, 25, was killed by police after the car he was driving was forced to stop on state Route 11 southbound just south of the Tibbets-Wick Road exit in a chase that began on state Route 11 near state Route 305 about 11 a.m.
Lt. Brian Holt, commander of the Ohio State Highway Patrol Southington post, said at a press conference late Friday afternoon that Dempsey refused to stop for Trumbull County Sheriff’s deputies who tried to pull him over and only stopped after his car hit a series of spike strips deployed by a trooper near the exit.
He then encountered troopers, deputies and officers from the Weathersfield Police Department, who had joined the chase as well, and brandished a semiautomatic handgun before he was shot, Holt said. Dempsey died of his wounds at St. Elizabeth Health Center about noon, Holt said.
Holt said the OSHP was requested to be the lead investigative agency by the sheriff’s department, and they kept the southbound lanes of state Route 11 closed for almost five hours while looking for evidence, opening the road up to traffic again about 4:30 p.m.
Holt said investigators still are trying to figure out whether Dempsey pointed the gun at police or whether he fired any shots. He said he did not know how many rounds were fired, which officers from which agencies may have fired or how many times Dempsey was struck.
Holt also said he did not know if Dempsey was in his car when the gunfire broke out or if he got out of the car and was shot then.
Because he died in Mahoning County, the Mahoning County Coroner’s office will perform the autopsy.
The car Dempsey was driving, a 1983 Cadillac El Dorado, was reported stolen a short time before the chase began. Chief Deputy Ernest Cook Jr. of the sheriff’s department said a deputy who was traveling northbound on state Route 11 near state Route 305 spotted the car and turned around and tried to pull it over, but the driver would not stop.
As the chase wound its way south down state Route 11, the sheriff’s deputies requested help when they were approaching the interchange with state Route 82. Holt said the chase was not terminated because Dempsey was traveling at roughly 70 to 75 miles per hour, and the speed limit on the part of the road where the pursuit took is 65 to 70 miles per hour.
He also said traffic was light at the time of the chase, which was another factor as to why it was not called off.
Cook said that Dempsey had to have known he was being chased. He said one of the deputies pulled up alongside him with lights flashing and looked at Dempsey and he still refused to pull over.
The car was towed back to the Southington post to be stored for evidence and the right front tire of the car was completely shredded.
Any officers who were involved in the incident for the three agencies will be placed on administrative leave, Holt said.
Holt said investigators were still talking to officers Friday, and the exact number who will be placed on leave is not known yet.
A check of court records for Dempsey shows only two traffic charges from August 2007 and another from November 2007, both in Warren Municipal Court, though a spokesman at the Trumbull County Jail said he was last in the jail in December when he faced a charge of sale to underage persons. A record for that case, however, could not be found.
Holt said the officers involved in the case are “distraught.” He said though they train for such a scenario, it is quite different when it actually happens.
“It’s a tragedy,” Holt said. “Nobody wants this.”