By Lou Grieco and Rob Modic
Tuesday, January 20, 2004 - Dayton Daily News, Ohio

TROTWOOD -- A 33-year-old man accused of shooting two law enforcement officers Sunday night spent nine years in prison for killing a co-worker in Champaign County with his car, was on probation for more recent drug violations and was facing eviction from his home in Union.

Matthew Glenn Grimes also spent much of Sunday in the Montgomery County Jail on a pair of traffic warrants.

About 11 p.m. Sunday, less than seven hours after his release from jail, police say Grimes shot a Trotwood police officer and a Montgomery County sheriff's deputy who had stopped at a Drexel gas station to question him for a burglary that had occurred minutes earlier two blocks away.

Trotwood Police Capt. Daniel Swafford said the officers patted down Grimes and placed him in the back seat of a cruiser, but missed a small handgun.

When the officers went to get Grimes out of the car, "He was waiting for them to open the door," Swafford said. "That's when he opened fire."

Police said Trotwood Officer Brent Rasor and Deputy Johnathan Miller were shot at close range — Rasor in the throat and Miller in the corner of his mouth — and that Grimes fled the scene in a Trotwood police cruiser.

A short time later, Dayton police spotted the cruiser and chased it until it crashed on West Fifth Street downtown. There, police said, Grimes pointed his gun at a Dayton police officer, who then shot Grimes twice.

Grimes was in critical but stable condition Monday at Miami Valley Hospital, Dayton Lt. John Huber said. Grimes was hit twice, including a leg wound that hit an artery and caused heavy bleeding. Huber said he didn't know where the second wound was.

Rasor was in serious condition, also at Miami Valley. Swafford said Trotwood Police Chief Mike Etter had visited Rasor. The officer could not speak, but was alert and gave the chief a thumbs up sign.

"Things are looking good there," Swafford said.

Miller's condition was unavailable Monday, but county Sheriff Dave Vore said his wound was not life threatening. He is at Good Samaritan Hospital.

County Prosecutor Mathias H. Heck Jr. said police had not brought the case to his office Monday, but, "We're going to charge him in the morning."

The incident Sunday night began with the report of a burglary at 6200 Carmin Ave. in the Drexel area of Trotwood.

A resident arriving home saw a burglar leaving and called Trotwood police, giving a description of a suspect and the car, according to a 911 tape released Monday by the sheriff's office. The homeowner described the car as an older model Mustang, with gray primer paint and plastic over one of the windows.

Minutes later, authorities spotted a car that matched the resident's description at Drexel Gas Mart on West Third Street near Olive Road.

A tape of the radio transmissions between a sheriff's dispatcher and one of the officers involved in the initial arrest indicates the dispatcher warned officers that the burglar had taken two loaded weapons from the house, a 20-gauge shotgun and a .25-caliber handgun. One officer reported to the dispatcher, just moments before being shot: "We have the vehicle. We have the guns here in the back seat."

Gas Mart employee Windy Stone said she saw Grimes pumping gas when a police car pulled up. She said Grimes motioned to the officer with his index finger, as if to say wait a minute, then Grimes went into the store and paid for his gas.

When he left the store, at least one other officer was there, Stone said. One patted Grimes down, and placed him in a cruiser, she said.

Using a flashlight, the officers looked in Grimes' car. One officer drove off, leaving Rasor and Miller, she said. A few minutes later, she saw Grimes outside the car.

"I didn't see a gun, but I heard gunshots," she said. "I saw the cops fall."

Stone said Grimes ran to his own car, tried to open the driver's door and the passenger door, then ran to the Trotwood cruiser, and drove away.

Stone said she saw one officer lying face down. The other was kneeling, holding his neck.

Sophia Pettit, 23, who lives nearby, was returning home from work when she heard four or five shots ring out at the Gas Mart. She said a man got out of a gray Mustang and into a Trotwood cruiser.

"I heard the deputy say, 'Get out of my car,' " Pettit said.

She said she saw the suspect drive down West Third Street toward Dayton, and that one officer fired back at the shooter after being hit.

Sheriff Dave Vore said Miller returned fire and radioed for help. "He didn't panic," Vore said.

Vore said he spent much of the night with Miller's family at the hospital. "He was able to talk and is in great spirits," Vore said Monday morning.

After witnessing the shootings, Pettit said she went to help the injured officers.

About 11 p.m., Dayton police received a signal 99, indicating an officer in trouble, and learned that the two officers had been shot. They were told to look for a stolen Trotwood cruiser, Dayton Lt. John Bardun said.

Officers spotted the car on Germantown Street near McArthur Avenue about 11:15 p.m. The chase went around the DeSoto Bass housing courts, then continued down Germantown toward downtown, he said.

The stolen cruiser hit a pole in the 300 block of West Fifth Street, near Sinclair Community College, and Grimes jumped out, fleeing toward Fourth Street.

Bardun said Grimes, a gun in his hand, then turned toward Dayton Officer Mike Saylors, and Saylors fired.

Grimes fell after one shot hit him, but then tried to push his legs around to position himself to fire his gun, Huber said, and Saylors fired again.

"Then he stopped resisting," Huber said.

Trotwood Capt. Swafford said it was unclear Monday why the two arresting officers went to get Grimes from the back of the cruiser. The officers can't be interviewed until their conditions improve, but Swafford said Grimes was lying about his identity, and it's possible the officers wanted to check his identification.

In 1990, when Grimes was 20, he pleaded no contest in Champaign County to felonious assault and aggravated vehicular homicide in the death of Kevin May, 29, a co-worker on a golf course construction project.

According to news accounts, Grimes and May, both highly intoxicated, got into a brutal fight on May 29, 1990, and Grimes told authorities he unintentionally ran over May as he attempted to drive away. May's body was found along the side of a road, and an investigation linked evidence at the scene to Grimes' car, Champaign County Sheriff David Deskins said Monday. Deskins investigated the case as a deputy.

Grimes was indicted for murder, but a Champaign County judge ruled that there wasn't enough evidence to support the murder charge. As part of a plea agreement, Grimes pleaded no contest to the other counts. He was paroled from prison on Oct. 18, 1999, after nine years.

On Feb. 19, 2002, Grimes paid $89,500 for a home at 310 Lutz St. in Union.

Four months later, in October 2002, Grimes was indicted on five felony counts stemming from a series of incidents the previous July and August involving prescriptions for Oxycodone, an addictive pain killer. Judge Barbara P. Gorman of Montgomery County Common Pleas Court placed Grimes on probation last January after Grimes pleaded guilty to three of the five counts as part of a plea agreement.

On Monday, several neighbors said Grimes lived at the Lutz Street home with a woman and a teenage girl, but none of the neighbors said they knew Grimes, and they recalled that he was rarely there during the days.

Recently, one neighbor said, it appeared that Grimes and others were moving out of the house. On Sunday, a "Sold" sign appeared on the front lawn.

Miamisburg Realtor Arnold Smith said he bought Grimes' home last month for $50,000 at a sheriff's sale completed the day after Christmas. Smith said he had been working with deputies to serve Grimes notice of his eviction effective Monday.

Smith said a deputy had attempted to serve Grimes with the eviction notice, and suspected Grimes was hiding inside the home because he had a pending warrant for his arrest for driving while under suspension and a seat belt violation.

"I met him over the phone," Smith said of Grimes. "He said he wanted to stay on and rent it from me," but did not follow up on the request.

"He told me he worked for a construction company and was laid off," Smith said. "According to him, he was divorced, but I think he had a girlfriend."

Sheriff's records showed Grimes was arrested early Saturday on the outstanding warrants and booked into the county jail at 3:50 a.m. He was released Sunday at 4:36 p.m., less than seven hours before the report of the burglary that led to the shootings.

"Our thoughts and prayers go out to the officers and their families. It's a tragedy," Swafford said.

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Tom Beyerlein contributed to this report.