Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, October 14, 1995 TAG: 9510170006
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Long
When Maurice Taylor pulled a gun on three Blacksburg police officers who were trying to arrest him in August, the officers were sure he was trying to kill them.
One officer recalls making eye contact with another officer and seeing fear in his eyes as Taylor pointed his gun at the officers. Another was convinced he saw smoke come from Taylor's gun.
The two officers who shot Taylor - J.E. Keene and T.D. Wimmer - were cleared Thursday by a special prosecutor who ruled they were justified in using deadly force.
Keene, Wimmer and Officer Michael Mickey had gone to a drugstore to arrest Taylor on a warrant for failing to appear in court on parole violation charges. When the officers asked if he was Taylor, he denied it and then turned to a cashier. Officers and a cashier say Taylor then reached into his pants and turned around pointing a firearm.
Only after Keene and Wimmer shot Taylor did they learn the weapon - which they thought was a large caliber handgun - was a high-quality BB pistol designed as a "look-alike" to an Israeli-made Desert Eagle pistol. Authorities said Thursday the pistol was not loaded.
A 12-page report filed by Gino Williams, Floyd County commonwealth's attorney and the special prosecutor in the case, includes partial transcripts of statements the officers gave during internal and Virginia State Police investigations of the shooting.
The fatal confrontation with Taylor likely took only about 20 seconds, with the gunfire lasting just five seconds, Williams said Thursday.
When Taylor pulled his gun, Keene told investigators that he "started backpedaling to my left at an angle to him." Keene saw Mickey to Taylor's right.
"... And Officer Mickey had reached out and had ahold of his left arm. Like his wrist and maybe his elbow area. And he was pulling on him. And while he was pulling on him Maurice Taylor was still swinging the gun back and forth, left and right at chest level, eye level like he was pointing it. I didn't know whether he was pointing it at me or one of the officers or whatever, but I felt that he was trying to kill us at that point and I drew my weapon during the process of backpedaling and I don't recall when I started firing at him," Keene said.
Keene remembers seeing Mickey - who was shot once in the left thigh, while another bullet struck his portable radio - going down to the floor.
"... Maurice Taylor was still standing up at the counter, still had the gun going back and forth, left and right, like he was taking it from me to the direction to where Mickey was on my right, swinging it back and forth. I can't remember any sound at this point, I just remember continuously firing at him because he was still aiming the weapon at me.
"I don't know how long it took, I just remember seeing him all of a sudden go forward and he still had the gun in his hand and I continued firing and then he hit the floor."
Keene stopped firing, but kept his weapon trained on Taylor.
"... I continued to keep him in my sights, I had him covered ... because I didn't know whether he was going to back up and continue firing again," Keene said.
Wimmer fired five shots after seeing Taylor pull the weapon out and believing Taylor had shot at Keene.
"... after he got it out of his pants it went up and he pointed it at me and Officer Keene and I remember it going back and forth.
"... it seemed like he done it three or four times, it may have been just once or twice, but I remember seeing it go to Jimmy [Keene] and then to me, and then back to Jimmy.
"And from that point I heard a pop, and we were so close I thought I seen it come out of the end of his gun, the white smoke, the smoke, and I said to myself, my God, he shot at us. ... I looked at myself real quick to see if I had been hit ...."
Wimmer didn't see Mickey or Keene.
"... I said he's shot Jimmy ... the next thing I remember I was standing in this aisle, in one of the aisles and I was shooting at him. I just remember just standing there and shooting at him. I don't remember how I got from where I was in front of the counter till I got down that aisle. I don't remember, I still don't remember how I got down that aisle. But I just remember being at that aisle and watching Mr. Taylor."
Mickey was trying to get the gun away from Taylor but was surprised by Taylor's strength. Mickey was convinced Taylor was firing at another officer and thought he would look up - after falling to the floor with a bullet to his left thigh - and see a comrade bleeding profusely.
When Taylor pulled the weapon, Mickey said: "... He pivoted his hand around and the gun, and the gun went towards Officer Keene's face. And Officer Keene and I made some eye contact. ... It wasn't a long look, but our eyes met for just a second. I saw Officer Keene, I saw the fear in his eyes of course, and I saw him making a move and I realized he was going for his gun.
"... I remember trying to reach around Taylor, trying to get to the gun, and I couldn't get hold of it and I remembered that his right arm felt really solid, really strong, I mean I remember thinking that he was a strong person for his size because he really wasn't a big man in stature. But he was wiry and he was strong."
While Taylor's weapon was pointed at Keene, Mickey told investigators he tried to turn Taylor to his right, "trying to get the gun off of Keene and that's when I heard the first shots ring out."
The sound of the gunfire echoed through the drugstore, he said.
"... It seems like it was blam blam, two rounds that went off real fast," Mickey said.
"At that point, because of where I had last seen the gun, I sincerely thought that Officer Keene was shot, either a head shot or in the left shoulder area of his body, because that's where the gun was last at and Officer Keene disappeared from my memory at that point "
"... I thought those shots that were fired ... were Taylor's gun going off. There was no question in my mind that that was the weapon that was going off; it was discharging."
Mickey didn't turn Taylor loose.
"All kinds of thought were rushing through my mind, I remember thinking that as long as the gun was facing in the direction that it was facing that I couldn't be shot, and that ... if I would allow him to empty the gun then I could overpower him and take him.
"Then there were some shots and I remember ... it was more like a sound [than] it was a feeling that I had in my left thigh ... and it was like a sound moving through my body and followed by a really intense pain deep in my left leg. Seconds after that, seconds after that my left thigh paralyzed and I remember sensing that it was buckling, that it was falling out from under me.
"When that round hit me and I started to go paralyzed, then I knew I was shot, and I said 'I'm hit ...'
"As I fell to the floor I was hearing a series of shots being fired, you know, in rapid succession, blam, blam, blam, blam. And in my head, in my mind, like I said, I had originally felt that Officer Keene was shot. I then felt certain that the shots that I was hearing at that point were ... Tim Wimmer and Maurice Taylor shooting it out."
When Mickey hit the ground, his first thought was that "he's going to finish you," and "I began then to try to get my head together to get my firearm."
Mickey never got his gun out because, when he looked over to where Taylor had been, he saw Keene standing over the man.
"... And I actually looked, I was so certain that Keene was shot that I looked up and down his body, one of the first things I did I looked up and down his body looking for the blood, because I knew he was shot, there was no question in my mind that he had been shot. And I remember, I remember I mean I felt exhilarated when I realized he wasn't, because at that moment I felt like, you know, that initial twist I had gave had saved Jimmy's life and I felt like I had saved him."
by CNB