I previously covered this story, back when it first broke, and updated readers again when the cops were trying to blame it on the man who died.
Here is my statement from my second blog article, on the matter of whether he was killed by the cop:
Lawrence County Coroner Burton Payne said there were was no obvious cause of death. “There were some bruises and burns,” he said. “We hope to get a preliminary report later this week.”
I think the obvious cause of death is being hit by the cop and then dragged underneath the cruiser for half a mile. But, that’s me, and I tend to play Master of the Painfully Obvious whenever possible.
“We don’t know why he was in the roadway,” Carey said. Authorities also don’t know if Thomas was standing or lying in the road when he was caught under the cruiser, he said.
When in doubt, always blame the victim. Argh.
The latest theory by the Ironton Police Department seems to be that Mr. Guy Thomas was dead before the cruiser hit him.
How convenient is that theory?
If Mr. Thomas was dead before the cruiser hit him, after being seen alive only moments before, that would be an incredible, almost unbelievable, coincidence. One would have to believe that a 46-year-old man simply fell dead in the middle of the road, was hit by a cop car (without the cop realizing he had hit something as big as an adult male) and then dragged over a half mile – all the way to the police station – by the cop, before the cop noticed he had hit anything.
I don’t believe that. I don’t believe any of that. I don’t believe he was already dead, and I don’t believe that the cop didn’t know he had hit something, and I don’t believe that the cop didn’t realize he was dragging something with his cruiser. I just don’t believe it, because the entire scenario beggars belief.
I’ll tell you what I do believe. I believe the cop knew he hit someone, freaked out, and was trying to avoid responsibility. I believe that he kept driving in the hope that the body would disengage from his cruiser and he could thus blame it on someone else, yet another unsolved hit and run crime.
Playing Master of the Painfully Obvious has paid off yet again, as it almost always does. Here is the latest, from WSAZ:
IRONTON, Ohio (WSAZ) — The man whose body was dragged by a police cruiser likely died from asphyxiation.
That’s the conclusion from the autopsy of Guy Thomas. The report also found that Thomas’ chest was crushed.
Lawrence County Prosecutor says he will turn the matter over to a grand jury that will determine what, if any charges will be filed against the driver of the cruiser, Patrolman Richard Fouts.
Fouts is on paid administrative leave.
Argh.
Let’s think this through for a moment. If the man’s chest was crushed, he had to have been run over by a tire. There is absolutely no way that the cop didn’t know he had hit something big; you know, like the size of a grown man. I can only imagine how much I would feel the impact if I ran over an adult human, not to mention the sound and such from dragging a human body for ten blocks.
Why is this cop still on paid administrative leave, when it’s now even more obvious that he had to have known he hit something, didn’t stop to check what it was, and it turns out that he killed a man with a police cruiser?
Better yet, why hasn’t he been arrested? If you or I hit a man, dragged him for over half a mile, and killed him, we’d be in jail immediately, charged with multiple crimes. We’d be charged with vehicular manslaughter, leaving the scene of an accident involving injuries, and any number of related crimes. They’d throw the proverbial book at us, and they wouldn’t wait for the Grand Jury. I suspect the fix is in, and the wagons are circling even tighter to protect this cop.
Why has this cop not already been charged with a crime, and why hasn’t he been arrested? That’s an easy question to answer. It’s because he’s a cop.
Argh.
I’ll keep an eye on this, and let you know when there is an update with regard to charges being filed against the cop.
Why? Why do cops usually only get investigated “internally” when they do something bad? Like shoot innocent old women or beat up women after turning off the camera in the processing room. Because they are the “elites” who are better than the rest of us, that is why.
[...] April 10, 2008 by ElfNinosMom I previously wrote about the case of a cop who dragged a man underneath his squad car for over half a mile; the last update, with links to the original, can be seen here. [...]
This is such a sad story, and it seems very odd to me that once again an innocent person is killed at the hands of the Ironton Police Dept. and still no one from the outside investigates the situation. As you state, how can a 46 year old man just drop dead in the middle of the road and a care run over him and not know it? It’s just as unexplainable that a healthy 23 year old man can drown in the Ohio river with some of Ironton’s “finest” watching, offering no help.
Hi, Tina. I’m unfamiliar with the case of a 23-year-old drowning with the cops watching. Do you remember any names from that case, so I can look it up?
I do think this is very odd, and even odder that the cop was not indicted for anything at all. What the heck is going on in Ironton, Ohio?
the 23-year-old who died in the river was James Aaron Roe. he was from south shore, kentucky. he was my first cousin.
the story i’ve been told by many people is that the cops tased him (i’ve even been told that he was tased at least once while in the water) and chased into the river. they had his twin brother handcuffed in the cruiser begging to help aaron.
if you go to the memorial page on myspace, i have posted blogs containing most of the newspaper articles.
there have been a few more deaths at the hands of the ironton police over the past 40 years. they think that they are “above the law” and apparently they are. if you’d like to email me, i’ll try to get as much information about the other victims as possible.
Hi, Ashlee. Sorry I am just now responding, but I have been offline for a few months.
Wow, that is extremely disturbing, and it does ring a bell now that I’ve looked at your MySpace memorial page. I’m very, very sorry for your loss.
What people need to understand is that the same thing could have happened to any young man who was drinking in a bar by the river, and got caught up in a fistfight. The cops seem to have gone out of their way to make him look bad, with their comments that he “taunted” them from the river. Even if that’s true, since when did exercising one’s First Amendment rights come with a death penalty?
The story told by the cops in those articles is quite a different story from that told by the non-cops on the scene. What I remember from your cousin’s death is many people saying he was tasered while in the water, and that was why he really drowned. Was that ever determined one way or the other by the coroner?
Your cousin actually reminds me of my son, who is also a rock musician in that area, and likes to hit the bars with his buddies (what young rocker doesn’t like to party?) This could just as easily have been him, and even the thought of that scares the living hell out of me. Send me a message via myspace (I sent you a friend request) and I’ll give you his band’s MySpace Music url since you may know them. I’m sure they’d love a friend request from your cousin’s memorial page, to show their support for a fellow rocker who died unnecessarily and far too young.
At this point, given that the cop walked away without any real consequences for dragging this poor man to death under a cruiser, I put nothing past the Ironton Police Department. The entire tri-state area is a veritable hotbed of police corruption and incompetence, though Ironton seems to be the worst.
Yes, I would definitely like to know more about the other victims. It sounds like Ironton cops are completely out of control.