In the last moments of his life, Timothy Thomas led police in a chase over a 10-foot fence and the back length of an abandoned building. Rounding a blind corner in the dark of night, he suddenly came face-to-face with Officer Steve Roach, who was sprinting up a driveway to stop him, according to a Cincinnati councilman's account of the shooting that sparked riots and unrest in the city.

INFOGRAPHIC
Thomas	Roach
The fatal chase

        A Hamilton County grand jury next week will hear evidence in the case. It is undisputed that Officer Roach fired once to the chest, killing Mr. Thomas at 2:20 a.m. Saturday.

        Councilman Jim Tarbell gave his account of the last minutes of Mr. Thomas' life in an interview Friday. He gave a much briefer version of events earlier this week as Mr. Thomas' mother and others crowded City Hall seeking answers to the death.

        “It wasn't a confrontation,” Mr. Tarbell says. “It was a surprise. I don't think words were spoken. He didn't have a chance to shout "halt.'”

Tarbell

        Mr. Tarbell says that when Mr. Thomas rounded the corner, he either had his hands in his pockets or he was pulling up his baggy pants. “Some guys told me that his pants were falling down.”

        Officer Roach, who'd been running with his gun drawn, thought Mr. Thomas was pulling something, possibly a gun, from his waistband, Mr. Tarbell says.

        “Put yourself there .... That's one of the biggest dope-dealing dens and dysfunctional environ ments that we have in this city,” he says. “It's absolutely the most frightening environment that we have in Cincinnati today. I've been there and walked it myself. It's scary at 3 p.m. Transfer that to 3 in the morning.”

        Mr. Tarbell lives in Over-the-Rhine, five blocks from the site of the shooting. He says he learned the details from police officers who walk the beat there.

        “These are guys I know well. I trust them,” he says.

        Police Chief Tom Streicher has said little about what happened at the moment of the shooting except that Officer Roach thought his life was in danger. The chief said Officer Roach fired 25 feet or less from Mr. Thomas. The few details Chief Streicher has released are consistent with Mr. Tarbell's account.

        Keith Fangman, president of the Fraternal Order of Police, Queen City Lodge, has said that Officer Roach believed Mr. Thomas was reaching for something in his waistband before he was shot.

        Officer Roach, who is on administrative leave, is considered one of the best four-year veterans in the police division, Mr. Tarbell says.

        The chase began outside the Warehouse Bar at 1313 Vine St. Off-duty officers David Damico and Robert Jones were standing outside the front door. Officer Damico spotted Mr. Thomas, who was wanted on 14 misdemeanor warrants, on the sidewalk across the street.

        Mr. Thomas, who was wearing a red bandana, spotted the officers about the same time and ran. Both officers gave chase.

        According to Mr. Tarbell:

        Mr. Thomas bolted down Vine Street and across 13th Street. Midway down the block, he took a sudden detour to the east. He jumped a 6-foot cyclone fence, crossed a parking lot and darted behind an abandoned pawnshop, landing on Jackson Street.

        With officers in pursuit, he headed south toward 12th Street, then circled back to Vine.

        In the middle of the 1200 block of Vine, he turned west, jumping another 6-foot fence. He then ran the length of a parking lot, turned right and scaled a 10- to 12-foot fence.

        He landed in a concrete alley behind an abandoned building, steps away from surprising Officer Roach.

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