Local police to honor their fallen
By DAVE GOSSETT, Staff writer
POSTED: May 9, 2008
Article Photos
According to a Jan. 8, 1908, edition of the Steubenville Herald-Star, “had it not been such a big day and he had such knowledge in the (Serbian neighborhood) he would have gotten a lay off from work.”
McDonald became the first Steubenville policeman to die while on duty the night of Jan. 7, 1908.
The Steubenville Herald-Star reported the next day that the 38-year-old McDonald was shot and instantly killed by Milovan Dodic during a New Year’s celebration.
McDonald, along with Patrolmen Lafayette Mercer, Leonard Lamatrice, Thomas McGough, Plainclothesman Owen Burns and Lt. Scott Roe will be remembered at 9 a.m. Thursday during Peace Officers Memorial Day ceremonies at the City Building.
Their stories are now faint memories of family members and can be found in the microfilm newspaper records at the Schiappa branch of the Public Library of Steubenville and Jefferson County.
Their names are displayed on a plaque in the hallway across from the police dispatcher’s station.
Fraternal Order of Police Chaplain Shawn Scott said the National Peace Officers Memorial Day was first instituted in 1962 by President John F. Kennedy.
“We would like to invite all area residents to join us for a short service Thursday to remember our police officers who died while doing their duty for the community. All flags in the community should be lowered to half staff that day. And we will read the names of our fallen officers,” Scott explained.
“We will also read the City Council proclamation. I will say a few words and offer a prayer, we will have ‘Taps’ played and lower the flag to half-staff, and three of us will lead the singing of ‘Amazing Grace,’” added Scott
McDonald was one of four patrolmen assigned “to the foreign district” on Jan. 7.
“It is thought that officer McDonald and the Serbian met face to face and it is supposed the Serbian shot the officer first in the stomach and then they clinched while the officer got out his revolver and fired catching Dodic in the thumb. Before McDonald could shoot again, the Serbian shot him in the left eye killing him instantly,” read the newspaper account.
The report described McDonald as “a brave and fearless officer in discharge of his duties in the most dangerous district in the city.”
The story also said McDonald “picked up much of the Serbian language and he was adept in handling the Serbian population. He had only been on the force a few months, but in that time he proved his efficiency and willingness to do his duty and he was popular with fellow officers and the residents of his district.”
The second city policeman to die in the line of duty was 53-year old Patrolman Lafayette Mercer.
Mercer died on July 2, 1914, after he was sent to arrest Albert L. Johnson, a local barber who lived on Adams Street.
The headline of the July 3 Herald-Star announced Mercer’s death with a headline and sub headline, “Pistol Duel Followed Attempt to Arrest Drink Crazed Barber in Front of his Home,” and, “Mercer Shot Four Times by Johnson Who in Return Receives Three Wounds — Later Dies at Hospital Friday Morning at 7:30.”
The Herald-Star said Mercer, a friend of Johnson, “was the one man who could approach him diplomatically and get his implements of carnage from him.”
“It is said that he (Mercer) and Johnson sat on the porch on chairs and discussed the situation which ended by Mercer arising and telling Johnson he must come with him as he had an affidavit for his arrest,” said the newspaper article.
That is when the shootout between Mercer and Johnson began and ended with the death of both men.
Mercer, one of the first black members of the city police department, was described in the newspaper as having, “combined intelligence with an utter lack of fear in his work. All the officers liked to go out on dangerous work with him. He was tireless when on the trail of men wanted for crimes and he has done some fine work as an officer.”
A photograph of Mercer shows him with slicked down hair and a thick, bushy moustache. The Mount Pleasant native was survived by his wife, mother and several brothers and sisters.
Plainclothesman Owen Burns was the third city officer to die in the line of duty in 1926.
Burns died while trying to arrest Albert Pirrung of Washington, Pa., “at a Water Street resort”.
The 39-year-old Burns had been a member of the city police force since 1921 and had been promoted to a plainclothesman position the week of his death.
A Herald-Star newspaper reporter described Burns’ final hours as he worked his beat in the Water Street district.
“He had arrested three drunks at Water and Market streets an hour before the shooting and the patrol wagon answered his call. Burns put the men in the wagon, took them to city prison and made his report. He then went out to cover his beat again. He never returned from it,” cited the newspaper article.
Burns responded to a call that Pirrung was breaking down the door at a Water Street house.
“Burns came in and flashed his badge and said ‘this joint was pinched.’ He told Pirrung to leave and Pirrung answered him profanely and pushed him. His heel tripping, Burns fell back, his head striking the stove. Pirrung obtained Burns’ gun in some way and shot him after throwing him down a second time,” cited the news account on Nov. 8, 1926.
The article said the Highland Avenue resident was “held in high esteem by the city administration.”
The fourth police officer’s death came on April 12, 1928, when 50-year-old Lt. Scott Roe died after he was thrown down a flight of stairs at the Capitol ballroom.
The Herald-Star reported Roe was “attempting to eject two youths from the Capitol ballroom where the Ohio Valley lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police was holding its annual ball.”
The two youths, Angelo Tamburra and Frank Roman, had been ordered several times to calm down at the dance when they began to fight each other near a stairway.
The newspaper report said Roe moved toward the pair and ordered them to leave when, “Tamburra crouched and dived low into Roe, hitting him over his shoulder and throwing him down the stairs.”
Roe came to the city police department in 1923 after serving as chief of police in Mingo Junction.
According to the story in the Herald-Star, Roe “twice has been in the hospital for injuries received in the line of duty, once being shot and another time suffering a broken leg. He has proved himself a courageous and valiant police officer and his recent promotion to the lieutenancy was a recognition of his able services as a police officer.”
It was a Tuesday afternoon in June 1972 when the last two police officers to be killed in the line of duty were caught in a gasoline fire at the intersection of state Route 7 and Stony Hollow Boulevard.
Patrolmen Leonard Lamatrice and Thomas McGough were approximately two hours into the afternoon shift when they encountered the accident that would claim their lives.
A gasoline tanker truck driver was headed east on Stoney Hollow Boulevard (now University Boulevard) when he felt his brakes, “go soft.”
Willie Culler was able to escape his rig unharmed. But the first two police officers to arrive at the scene weren’t so lucky.
“I went to the Steubenville police department and there was a lot of confusion as to what happened. Officers Lamatrice and McGough believed the truck driver was still in the cab of his rig and tried to rescue him when they were caught in the sudden fire. The investigators told me they weren’t sure if the heat from the police car engine ignited the flames or it came from a radio transmission that sparked the fire,” former Herald-Star reporter Bob Sohovich recalled.
Both officers were transported to Mercy Hospital in Pittsburgh, Lamatrice with burns to more than 60 percent of his body and McGough suffering from burns to 75 percent of his body.
“It was extremely sad for everyone. I knew both officers and had attended Catholic Central with McGough,” according to Sohovich.
“Steubenville has been lucky. You don’t want to see any police officer killed on the job but the city is fortunate to only have six officers to die on the job,” Sohovich said.
“These are six officers who never heard or had the opportunity to answer their ‘last call.’ We will remember them and honor them Thursday at our Peace Officers Memorial Day service,” stated Scott.
(Gossett can be contacted at dgossett@heraldstaronline.com.)
