Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, August 25, 1995 TAG: 9508250071
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Berman Maurice Taylor, 22, was shot at the Revco drug store on South Main Street after he pulled what turned out to be a BB pistol on three officers who were trying to arrest him. He had failed to appear in court for a probation revocation hearing in connection with a 1992 robbery conviction.
Taylor was shot 12 times in the neck, chest, arm, shoulder and left leg, according to the medical examiner's office. Dr. David Oxley, deputy chief medical examiner for Western Virginia, said three shots - to Taylor's lungs and neck - were fatal.
Officer Michael Mickey spent several days in Montgomery Regional Hospital after a shot fired by one of the other officers struck him in the left thigh.
Mickey, who was standing behind Taylor, said Taylor pulled a gun when the three officers confronted him inside the store. Mickey said he immediately grabbed Taylor by the throat and arm and began wrestling him for the gun.
The BB pistol looks strikingly like a .45- or .50-caliber handgun. BB pistols, which propel projectiles with compressed carbon dioxide gas, can be dangerous, even fatal, at close range.
When Taylor pointed the gun at the two officers in front of him, they moved to their left, drew their weapons and fired.
Taylor never fired a shot, police said.
The names of the officers who shot Taylor have not been released. After the shooting, authorities expressed concerns about retaliation against the officers.
"We have all but completed the investigation," Bob Perry, assistant special agent in charge of the State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigations in Salem, said Thursday.
The state police are waiting for lab results, including tests to determine whether Taylor had any drugs or alcohol in his system.
The findings of the investigation will be forwarded to the commonwealth's attorney's office, which will rule whether the shooting was justified.
Historically, the use of deadly force by law enforcement officers in the Roanoke and New River valleys has been ruled justifiable after investigations were completed.
Last Sept. 18, deadly force was used by both New River and Roanoke officers.
Two Montgomery County deputies shot and killed a West Virginia man after he fatally wounded Christiansburg Police Officer Terry L. Griffith. Griffith was attempting to arrest Samuel Jerome Patterson for stealing a carton of cigarettes from Hills Department Store when the two got into a struggle. Patterson wrestled Griffith's gun from him and fired.
Patterson was shot after he took a deputy's patrol car, led police on a chase through Christiansburg, then jumped into another patrol car, ignoring warnings to surrender.
A medical examiner ruled that three of the 11 shots that hit Patterson likely were fatal.
Tests showed Patterson had an 0.09 percent blood-alcohol content.
Earlier that day in Roanoke, Gary Wayne West, a 34-year-old Floyd County man, was shot nine times by Roanoke police after a two-hour standoff on Williamson Road.
Officers fired 35 shots at West, who had leveled a shotgun at a police lieutenant after being doused with pepper spray.
The standoff began because West was upset over a failed relationship with his girlfriend. Police said he had pointed the shotgun at himself, two women and police.
Lab tests showed that West had cocaine in his system when he was shot.
In May, a Botetourt County man was shot and killed after he wielded a hatchet at deputies who were attempting to serve an emergency custody order on him.
Leon Harlow, 65, was shot twice in the chest after he knocked two deputies to the ground.
Family members had obtained the order after Harlow became increasingly hostile after being off medication for manic depression.
All three shootings were ruled justifiable.
by CNB