This article appeared in the Metro section of the May 30, 1998 edition of The Columbus Dispatch. Please note that this man had an address: he was not a "homeless bum" but a reponsible property owner, or at least responsible enough to pay rent. If you thought you were "safe" because you're a "solid citizen," think again.

I have transcribed this story verbatim.

By ErinMarie Medick
Dispatch Police Reporter

Columbus police are expecting results today from an autopsy that will determine whether some type of medical condition caused a 44-year old man to collapse and die after struggling with officers in a West Side basement.

Eugene B. Ford, of 244 Wrexham Ave., died shortly before 9 a.m. yesterday at Mount Carmel Medical Center, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Officer Keith Lohr suffered a broken ankle during the struggle. He was in fair condition last night at Grant Medical Center after surgery.

A second officer, James Stults, was injured when a nail punctured his leg. He was treated at the hospital and released.

Homicide detective Pat Dorn said Ford may have had a heart attack or stroke.

Dorn gave this account:

About 8:15 a.m., a woman called Columbus police and said a man was in a field in the 200 block of Belvidere Avenue, falling down and acting strange.

Lohr and Stults arrived a few minutes later and found Ford. He was acting inan "unusual manner."

When the officers approached Ford, he ran north through several back yards, then east across Belvidere to a home there.

Ford went into a house through an open back door.

An elderly woman who lived there did not know Ford and quickly closed a second inside door, securing herself from him.

At the same time, Lohr and Stults came to the back door, but Ford was apparently holding the outside door shut.

When the officers forced the door open, Ford ran down a basement staircase, and the officers sprayed him with mace. During the struggle, a wooden step collapsed, injuring Lohr.

Stults continued to struggle with Ford down the steps. The officer attempted to handcuff him at the bottom, but Ford collapsed on the floor.

The woman who called police about Ford said she first thought the man might be intoxicated. "But then I watched him again before the officers arrived, and I thought then that he might be having a medical problem," said Jennifer Harris, 26, of Belvidere Avenue.

"He was acting very strange, and I was concerned because of teh day-care center, and I was worried about the children."

Charity Child Day Care Center is next to the elderly woman's home.

Harrison said she saw Ford fall numerous times in the field. "At one point, he got up and his arm was dangling down," she said. "It looked like it was paralyzed. He couldn't walk at one point, and then he held up his right leg like his leg or ankle was broken."

In a separate incident, a North Side man died in the back of a police cruiser Thursday night. Police said the man may have died from a heart attack, but they were awaiting the results of an autopsy.

The man, whose name has not been released, was arrested at 9:15 p.m. on charges of disorderly conduct and was drunk, police said.

Other specifics weren't available from police late last night.

COMMENT:

A number of things really stink about this.

For one, there is the fact that Ford wasn't hurting anyone. He was standing alone in a field, acting in an "unusual manner." Gee, what a good reason to chase him down and mace him. In fact, he was acting peacefully, and did nothing even remotely criminal until the cops approached him. He had every right to do what he was doing, and they had no right to mess with him.

Jennifer Harrison said she called the cops because she thought Ford was drunk. If so, so what? That's none of her business; even if he was, he seemed intent on amusing himself in that field, and did not even approach her house. HE WAS NO THREAT TO HER OR ANYONE. Rather, she just wanted to intrude into the affairs of someone else. She was, in short, a nosey busybody.

Harrison's excuse that she "thought he might be having a medical problem" sounds phony. If someone is having a medical problem, you call the emergency squad, not the pigs.

And what about her being "worried about the children?" She said herself he looked like at least one arm was paralyzed and one leg or ankle might be broken. So what, pray tell, could he have done to a child, crippled (or drunk and incoherent) as he was? On the contrary, the children might have injured HIM - if they and he could make contact.

That's another thing: I haven't visited Charity Child Day Care Center, but I'll bet it's got a HUGE fence around it with LOCKED gates. At 9 a.m. the kids would have been safely inside, and even at recess they would still be inside a fenced-in compound. In other words, there would be no danger from anyone like Ford.

One wonders, if Ford was in such poor shape, why he was able to run so long from the police. What did they do, WALK after him?

For some reason, the old woman's name and address were not given. Also, note that Harrison's address was not given either. Why not? Certainly the police knew both - if, that is, thre really was an old woman, and if Jennifer Harrison really did call the police - before they assaulted Ford, that is.

QUESTIONS:

Did Jennifer Harrison have a grudge against Eugene Ford?

Did she really call the cops - again, BEFORE they assaulted Ford?

Were Lohr and Stults friends of hers, and did they know Ford?

Were there any witnesses to this event - on a dense urban street?

If not, why not? Was everyone looking the other way?

Who was that old woman, and why wasn't she named?

Why did the cops take so long to capture this INJURED man?

If he was injured, how could he have run off?

... and more, when I can think of them.

CONCLUSIONS:

Eugene B. Ford was harmless. The worst he was doing in that field might be trespassing - unless it was public property, in which case he had a right to be there. He also had a right to act in an "unusual manner" if he so desired. He was an innocent victim.

Who victimized him is another question. Certainly the police did: they should have been out chasing crooks, not harrassing a harmless wierdo. Did Jennifer Harrison victimize Ford? I'd say she did. No *rational adult* would have been "worried about the children" and nobody who wanted to help him would have called the police. I don't know what her reasons were, but she is definitely responsible, at least in part, for killing Eugene Ford.

I find it interesting that so many men, alone and with no friends around to help them, either on the scene or to demand justice from the courts later, get arrested for "disorderly conduct" and end up dying in the "care" of the police. More than interesting - I find it INFURIATING.

Eugene B. Ford is a victim of the American Police State. He might be alive today if nobody had bothered him - or, if he had been able to keep and bear a firearm to defend himself.