Items found in car of Middlefield shooting suspect James Gilkerson
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(Gallery by Martha Mueller Neff, The Plain Dealer)
MIDDLEFIELD, Ohio — Middlefield Police Chief Arnold Stanko said his small village was the last place he expected to become a beachfront in what he called "a war against law enforcement."
But on March 10, he said, the war came to Middlefield, a place where cars share the streets with Amish men and women in horse-drawn buggies.
James Gilkerson, 42, of Mentor-on-the-Lake, was pulled over for running a stop sign. He got out of his car wielding a semi-automatic AK-47 and fired 37 shots at Middlefield police officers Brandon Savage and Erin Thomas. The officers returned fire, shooting 54 rounds at Gilkerson, fatally wounding the man as he shouted, "Kill me."
"He was a scumbag, and a terrorist, and he's dead," Stanko said at a news conference on Friday.
In Gilkerson's car, police found eight magazines loaded with 40 rounds each of ammunition for the AK-47, a .22 caliber rifle and a magazine of ammunition for it, more than five pounds of gunpowder and empty shells.
They also found a large number of books and DVDs on terrorism and subversive topics such as "Backyard Rocketry: Converting Model Rockets Into Explosive Missiles," "Advanced Close-range Gun Fighting," "Big Book of Homemade Weapons," "Invisible Resistance to Tyranny" and "How To Dispose of a Dead Body."
Stanko said, "I don't know what he had planned or where he was going. I just know he got out of his car intending to kill my officers. The AK-47 rounds he was firing would go right through a policeman's bulletproof vest."
It was the first police-officer involved shooting in the history of the rural Geauga County village, Stanko said.
"There is a war going on against law enforcement in this country, and the other side is better armed than we are," the chief said. "Thirty-six police officers have been killed this year alone in this country. (A law enforcement website said 16 were killed with guns.) The guns Gilkerson fired and everything in his car is perfectly legal to buy and own."
Stanko took the police chief job here 13 months ago. Before that he was police chief in Waite Hill for 15 years. In his remarks Friday, he first stopped short of taking a position on banning weapons like the AK-47, but reconsidered.
"These AK-47s have got to go," he said. "I could have lost two officers out there."
Stanko said his department and other agencies are investigating Gilkerson's life, but have found little.
"He has no criminal record, was not a member of any suspicious organizations. He was a loner, who didn't have a job and lived with his mother," Stanko said.
Police showed the dash cam video of the shootout during a news conference. They also distributed a statement from the Lake County prosecutor saying the shooting by police was justified, and the matter would not be taken to a grand jury.
Stanko said his officers saw Gilkerson's car go through a stop sign on Ohio 608, near Pierce Street. They pulled it over.
Thomas, who had only been on the 10-person force for a month, got out of the passenger side of the patrol car, walked behind the patrol car and had reached the driver's door of the cruiser when Gilkerson bolted from his car and began shooting.
Thomas fired back, as did Savage. Stanko said Savage shot through the windshield of the cruiser.
The chief said Gilkerson was shot several times, but kept firing. He said during the gunfight, Gilkerson shouted, "Kill me."
Thomas, a former Woodmere officer, still is not back to work. She lost the index finger of her left hand in the encounter. Savage had minor injuries to his left thigh. He is back at work, the chief said.
Stanko said he did not know if Gilkerson kept his weapons, ammunition and the books in his car all the time or if he had piled them all in that day.
"I just thank God that our officers had education, training and knew tactics, which is why they are alive today," Stanko said. "And they were better shots."
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: msangiacomo@plaind.com, 216-999-4890