Internal affairs investigation also clears officer in Warren death

By Ed Runyan | February 17, 2015 at 12:05a.m.

WARREN

The internal-affairs investigation conducted by the Warren Police Department into the Oct. 19, 2013, officer- involved shooting death of Taemarr Walker cleared Officer Michael Krafcik of any wrongdoing.

The investigative report, released Monday by the Warren Police Department, said Krafcik violated no departmental policies when he shot Walker to death in Walker’s girlfriend’s car, which was stuck in a ditch along Risher Road at the time.

Details of the shooting not previously released are contained in the report.

Perhaps the most compelling is the account Krafcik gave a state investigator of the way that an ordinary call about an abandoned car needing to be towed turned into 90 seconds of chaos, followed by five gunshots into Walker’s body.

Krafcik told Charlie Snyder of Tuscarawas County, a special agent for the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, that he was walking up to the abandoned car to get a vehicle identification number off of it when Walker drove past him, and the four-door Chevy dropped into a deep ditch.

“I approached the vehicle because now I got another crash to deal with,” Krafcik said of the Walker vehicle. Krafcik quickly noticed an assault rifle in the back seat and immediately got on his police radio to ask a dispatcher for “another [officer] out here, got a subject with a gun in a car.”

A tape of Krafcik’s radio transmission indicates he’s calm until — in a split second — his tone changed and his voice changed dramatically as he yelled, “Get your hands up!”

Walker quickly moved from the driver’s seat to the back seat next to the rifle. But when Walker saw Krafcik pointing a gun at him, Walker put his hands up, Krafcik said.

According to the radio log provided by Warren police, Krafcik didn’t speak into his microphone for 85 more seconds after that, as the dispatcher asked Krafcik twice over spaced intervals whether he was OK, but Krafcik gave no reply.

Krafcik would explain to Snyder that Walker initially complied with Krafcik’s orders to keep his hands up, and Krafcik could see latex gloves on Walker’s hands.

Walker’s live-in girlfriend, Regan Jelks, 22, was in the front seat, and Krafik was ordering her also to put her hands up, which she did, but she also was screaming, “Please don’t kill me!” Krafcik said.

Krafcik was focused on Walker’s hands and prepared to shoot, he said. But Krafcik was alone except for tow-truck driver Jerry Gifford somewhere behind him, and Krafcik was glancing occasionally at Jelks for fear that she might also pose a threat.

“Don’t move. Don’t touch the gun. If you touch the gun, I am going to shoot you,” Krafcik recounted. “We’re just continuing. It’s going on and I’m screaming and trying to keep my eye on her as well as him.”

The scene became the epitome of chaos: “She’s screaming, ‘Don’t kill me!’ and I’m just trying to stall waiting for my backup to get there,” Krafcik said.

“He’s looking around,” Krafcik said of Walker. “At one point in time, he actually starts kicking the door. ... Believe at one point, he actually tried to open the door and push the door open. And I’m putting my weight on the door ...”

“Then, he, for some reason ... lunges forward in between the driver seat and passenger seat. His feet are still to the back. He is basically kind of laying and dives forward, and I issue another radio call to step it up,” Krafcik said.

That radio call came 85 seconds after the previous one containing Krafcik’s first command for Walker to put his hands up, according to the radio log.

Walker was “rooting around” under the seat, and Krafcik was screaming at Walker to stop. “Show me your hands, and he pulls a handgun out from underneath the front seat and I shoot him.”

Krafcik radioed “shots fired” 10 seconds after his previous radio transmission.

Walker was still moving after the first shot or shots, and Krafcik fired at least three more times before Walker stopped moving. One of the five shots hit Walker in the back right part of his head. The others hit him in the torso.

The first backup officer, Sgt. Brian Holmes, arrived 56 seconds after Krafcik’s “shots fired” call.