BY TANYA BRICKING
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Officers David Verser and Ruth Hunt, in red jacket, tend to Randy Black after he was shot.
(Glenn Hartong photo)
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Cincinnati police shot a suspected bank robber to death Friday morning as the 23-year-old man fled a University of Cincinnati credit union and threw a piece of concrete at an officer, authorities said.
Police say Randy Black walked into Cinco Credit Union in UC's Tangeman University Center just after the credit union opened at 8:30 a.m.
He threatened the lives of employees, indicating he had a weapon, and demanded money, Cincinnati Police Lt. Col. Richard Biehl said. But the suspect ran off without the cash.
With security guards, construction workers and campus and city police on his trail, Mr. Black fled through busy streets south of the university, police said.
Officer Joseph Eichorn Jr., left, shot Black after a chase.
(Glenn Hartong photo)
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Cincinnati Officer Calvin Mathis caught up with him on Wheeler Street in Clifton Heights, and Mr. Black threw a brick at him, police said. The officer was not injured, but dozens of his colleagues responded to his call for assistance.
Mr. Black continued through a back yard from Wheeler Street to Clifton Avenue, where Cincinnati Police Officer Joseph Eichhorn Jr. spotted him.
Charlie Frey, 67, was standing in his yard on Wheeler Street talking to his wife, who was pulling weeds, when Mr. Black ran by.
"I'm so used to hearing sirens I didn't really pay attention until I saw a University of Cincinnati cop come flying down the street," Mr. Frey said. "That's about the time I heard two shots. It was pandemonium all of a sudden -- with police, plainclothes cops and reporters all over."
During those few seconds, police say, Mr. Black violently resisted arrest, threatened Officer Eichhorn with a large board with protruding nails and threw a piece of concrete at him.
Officer J.R. Connolly stops witness Vincent Brown from giving details of the shooting to journalists.
(Glenn Hartong photo)
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Vincent Bowen said he saw it happen.
"He was waving a stick and a rock at the cop, then he lunged at him, and the cop shot him once," Mr. Bowen said. "The guy didn't stop, and he lunged at him again, so the cop shot him two more times."
Police stopped Mr. Bowen from commenting further. Authorities say only two shots were fired.
The shots hit Mr. Black in the abdomen. He was in critical condition for several hours at University Hospital but was pronounced dead Friday afternoon. Police said they did not know his address or neighborhood.
Just before the pop of quick shots, Greg Williams, who was working inside Gfroerer carpet-cleaning company on Clifton Avenue, heard what sounded like someone yelling at a dog.
"Get down! Get down!" the voice called. Mr. Williams, 37, later learned the voice came from a Cincinnati police officer. Mr. Black was shot in front of the carpet-cleaning business.
"I was born and raised just down the street," Mr. Williams said. "You get used to a lot of stuff going on here. But this is the first time I heard an actual gunshot."
Officers found a loaded .22-caliber semiautomatic handgun in a coat left at the university center, but had not confirmed it was Mr. Black's.
Officer Eichhorn received a minor injury to his right forearm in the scuffle. He is on administrative leave pending a routine evaluation from a police psychologist to determine whether he is fit to return to duty.
The shooting has sparked three investigations, which are routine when police are involved in shootings. The Cincinnati Police Division's homicide and internal investigation units will conduct the first two, and the city's Office of Municipal Investigations will do an independent review.
A rash of robberies
The incident was the seventh bank robbery in Hamilton County in the past two weeks. That's half as many bank robberies as in all of last year in Hamilton, Clermont and Brown counties, according to FBI statistics.
"For the area, we're pretty much on par with other years," said David Welker, a special agent in the FBI's Cincinnati office. The area typically has about two dozen bank robberies a year, he said.
The average take in a bank robbery is $2,000, and 74 percent of bank robbers in southern Ohio are caught, he said.
"We are fortunate here, considering Columbus has 85 to 100 or more a year," he said, "and Dayton has probably twice as many as we do."
For the hilltop neighborhood caught in a rash of recent violence, that is little consolation.
A little more than two weeks ago, just blocks from this shooting scene, a 21-year-old Mount Auburn man was shot to death by police after he shot at them.
Half a block from that crime scene, two Cincinnati police officers were shot to death in December by a domestic-violence suspect.
Friday's shooting also brought back memories of the Feb. 23, 1997, shooting in Corryville of escaped mental patient Lorenzo Collins, who had lunged at officers with a brick. His death set off protests by African-Americans and advocates for the mentally ill, but officers were cleared of wrongdoing.
The Rev. Damon Lynch Jr., former president of the Baptist Ministers Conference, had been critical of the Collins shooting but said he hopes this shooting does not spark racial division. The officer who fired the shots is white; Mr. Black is African-American.
"I hope that the officer acted within the scope of his training," the Rev. Mr. Lynch said. "I'm sorry to see the young man die. We support his family, and I'm sure the officer is shaken up as well."
