Joe Kaluza dies; paralyzed in 2008 KFC robbery

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Joe Kaluza, who was shot and paralyzed in 2008 while delivering a bank deposit after his shift as a manager at a KFC on South Avenue, died Thursday, a family member confirmed.

Kaluza died about 4:30 p.m. at an area hospital after an ambulance picked him up in the morning because he was not feeling well, the relative reported.

Kaluza, 49, who was paralyzed from the neck down, had been in and out of hospitals over the years because of illnesses.

The shooting that paralyzed him happened March 24, 2008, when he was driving on South Avenue to make the deposit. A car cut him off and caused an accident.

Kaluza lent his cellphone to the woman driving the car, but a man with her shot him in the head and neck. The man pushed his car a short distance into a driveway and stole $300. The accident, police believe, had been staged.

Taran Helms, 23 at the time of the shooting, and his girlfriend, Hattie Gilbert, 20, both of Youngstown, were each sentenced to 50 years in prison.

A Western Reserve Transit Authority bus security camera caught the staged crash on videotape, and the tape helped detectives identify and find Gilbert’s car near her residence.

Because Kaluza’s home on Ivanhoe Avenue was hard for him to navigate in his wheelchair, people in the community got together to raise funds and build him a new home with wider hallways and other handicap-accessible features just five doors down from his old one.

Staying in the neighborhood he and his family loved was important, he had said.

He lost his wife, Lisa, who died in 2013 at age 53.

The couple have a daughter, Tiffany, and a son, Joshua.