Published: March 09, 2008 11:31 pm         

Pedestrian struck, killed by Ironton Police officer

IRONTON — Guy Cameron Thomas’ family knows how he was killed, although they have questions they fear will never be answered by police in Ironton.

Thomas’s body was recovered after he was struck and dragged an unspecified distance by an Ironton Police Department patrol car Saturday night.

Late Sunday afternoon, more than a dozen members of his extended family sat in his home on Adams Street doing their best to keep from showing their anger while trying to process the bits and pieces of information they had collected during the long night before.

“There’s a lot of questions that need to be asked, and we can’t ask them,” said family member Horace Miller, as another explained their calls to police resulted only in questions about how they had heard about the death. “No police have been to this house yet.”

Ironton Police Chief Jim Carey released a brief statement about the incident early Sunday morning, saying an Ironton Police Department cruiser “was involved in a fatal pedestrian crash” near Ninth and Jefferson streets. Neither Thomas, nor the officer driving the cruiser, was identified in the press release, although it was stated the officer would be placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation, and the Ohio Bureau of Investigation has been asked to complete an independent investigation.

Friends and family and community members are planning a march with candles and posters beginning at 6 tonight at a playground on Ninth Street following a trail toward the Ironton Police Department.

A friend of Thomas, who heard about the incident, tracked the trail of Thomas’ blood through the snow along S. Ninth Street and found the tattered remains of his wallet near Kingsbury Elementary School.

“I was tracking the whole trail. I hadn’t been to bed. I was still in my pajamas,” said the man, who asked not to be identified, although his cap indicated he may have had military experience.

The wallet contained Thomas’ driver’s license, a document from his military service and about $300 in cash. Family members said one of his shoes was found at the corner of Washington and Seventh streets.

“He was almost home,” his aunt said, explaining Thomas appeared to have been struck by the police car about four doors away from the corner near his house. She said he had been to his brothers early in the evening and later went to the nearby American Legion post, where friends reported he left on foot around 9:30 p.m.

Family member Stephanie Pringle said, “The snow has melted the blood away,” but pointed out a continuous skid mark and what appeared to be blood stains from the point where Thomas was struck, rounding a corner in the direction of the Ironton Police Department.

The few people walking around the neighborhood near Thomas’s home reported wildly conflicting versions of what happened. The only consistent statement made was a question about how anyone could possibly drag a body for such a distance and not be aware something was wrong.

“He was single. He was a good, happy go lucky, good guy. He was a caring person,” said his aunt, Lou Verna Miller, later pointing out the collection of ball caps he kept in his small and tidy bedroom.

“He was a hat guy,” she said, smiling while fighting back tears as a call came in from his brother, who had just identified the body and described the conditions of his remains to her as she stood by his bed. He also had many family members in the Ashland area, she said, adding, “He’s just as much Kentucky’s boy as Ohio’s.”

Guy Cameron Thomas, 46, was a decorated veteran of the U.S. Navy who served aboard the USS John F. Kennedy between December 1982 and April 1985. Funeral arrangements are pending because of the requirement for an autopsy examination, family members said.

TIM PRESTON can be reached at tpreston@dailyindependent.

com or at (606) 326-2651.

     

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