By Jane Prendergast
The Cincinnati Enquirer

NORTHSIDE - A Cincinnati police officer shot and killed a burglary suspect early this morning after the man grabbed the officer's nightstick and beat him around the head with it in a dark alley off Hamilton Avenue.

Sherrer	Schulte
Click on Schulte's photo to see his head wounds (Photo by Cincinnati Police)

Andre Sherrer, 34, was shot about 4 a.m. by Officer Michael Schulte, a four-year veteran of the department. Sherrer was paroled from prison in July after serving 14 years for aggravated robbery.

Schulte and other officers responded to a break-in of Legends Sports Wear on Chase Avenue. A private security company had called 911 to report that the business' alarm was going off because its front window had been broken out.

Officers said they spotted Sherrer and chased him through two alleys and across Hamilton Avenue, ending in a dark area between two buildings. Officials weren't yet sure this afternoon how Sherrer got Schulte's metal baton, but they showed pictures of numerous red welts and cuts on the 26-year-old officer's head.

Sherrer was taken to University Hospital, where he was declared dead. Schulte was treated at the hospital and released.

City and police officials, though cautioning that the investigation had only begun and the information was preliminary, called Schulte's action reasonable under the circumstances.

"This is a reasonable action,'' Lt. Col. Richard Janke said. "He was in pursuit of a felony suspect.''

It was the first time since November 2001 that Cincinnati police killed a suspect.

Scherrer was paroled in July from the Ross Correctional Institution in Chillicothe, where he had been sent in May 1988 to serve a nine- to 25-year sentence.

Homicide investigators started their investigation first. Officers from the department's internal investigations section and representatives from the city's new Civilian Complaint Authority (CCA) also went to the scene. Their work will be on hold until homicide finishes.

E-mail jprendergast@enquirer.com