By Gregory Korte
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Schulte

Sherrer

Even after he shot a burglary suspect several times, Officer Michael Schulte may have scuffled with the man in a Northside alley, according to a witness to the Sunday morning incident.

"I heard a lot of screaming and yelling, and banging around. It sounded like people were fighting," said Steve Zieverink, whose bedroom window overlooks the alley

Zieverink, a 26-year-old artist who runs the Unit 2 artists' collective in Camp Washington, said he was awakened shortly after 4 a.m. Sunday by gunshots.

"I thought they were coming into the apartment, it was so close," he said. "The gunshots sounded like cannons."

By the time he got to the window, Zieverink said 34-year-old Andre Sherrer was on the ground. "I saw two officers, and they had their guns pointed down at the suspect, and they had their flashlights on him, too."

"Don't move," he said the officers shouted. "Keep your hands where we can see them. Don't pick up the weapon."

As Zieverink stared out the window, the situation calmed. But soon, the officers realized the suspect wasn't moving, he said.

"Then I heard things like, `Stay with us buddy.' They kept screaming it out loud. They were pretty upset that he was dying," Zieverink saidPolice say Sherrer, released from prison last year after serving 14 years for aggravated robbery, broke the front window of a Chase Avenue clothing store early Sunday. Schulte, responding to the call, saw him running out of the store and chased him for two blocks through alleys.

Sherrer somehow got control of Schulte's baton and hit the officer with it, police said.

E-mail gkorte@enquirer.com