Minutes earlier, 40 guests were celebrating his 36th birthday party with burgers, beers and battles on the cornhole boards.
But the party turned to mayhem when, according to witness statements given to Trotwood police, a man many at the party barely knew fired shots toward darkening skies that night in late July 2008.
Those shots landed Glascoe in a helicopter bound for Miami Valley Hospital. The gunman, identified by police as Michael Hall, also shot Tommy’s brother, Jimmy Glascoe, at the party.
At the hospital, Tommy asked a police officer, “My brother didn’t make it, did he?”
Jimmy, 41, was pronounced dead about 9:30 p.m. at Good Samaritan Hospital, according to Trotwood police reports.
He died from a gunshot wound to the abdomen, but was also hit in the hand and thigh, according to a Montgomery County Coroner’s report.
It’s been more than a year since the shooting and no criminal charges have been filed in Glascoe’s death.
A Montgomery County grand jury in November declined to indict Hall after 20 witnesses testified during a two-day investigation.
Self-defense was “an issue,” in the case, county prosecutor’s spokesman Greg Flannagan said.
Trotwood detective Troy Dexter said the shooting is an open homicide case. He said lesser charges could be filed against Hall, but that eliminates a possible murder indictment.
Hall said in a recent interview with the Dayton Daily News that he shot the Glascoe brothers in self-defense.
Tommy said Hall’s actions created irreversible damage to his family. He said the grand jury’s decision makes it seem like the shooting never happened.
“No one ever shot at Mike Hall,” Tommy said. “There were kids at that party. He pulled out a gun and started shooting without being provoked.”
The night of the party: July 26, 2008
Tommy Glascoe’s surprise party was an outdoor event at the farm in the 3300 block of Snyder Road.
Kenny Myers, a lifelong friend of Tommy and Jimmy Glascoe, said Michael Hall was playing cornhole and drinking beer when a fight broke out about 8:30 p.m.
James Anders, the son of Hall’s girlfriend, and a third Glascoe brother, Danny, briefly scuffled, according to witness statements to Trotwood police.
Many witnesses told police they were trying to break up the fight, but Hall said it appeared they were ganging up on Anders.
“People were swarming on him, and I thought uh-oh this ain’t good, and no one was taking up for (Anders),” Hall said.
Hall said he ran to his girlfriend’s car and retrieved a Browning 9 mm handgun from the trunk.
He then fired five “warning” shots in the air.
What happened next varies depending who you believe.
As partygoers rushed for cover, Tommy Glascoe said, he and his father, Kenny, rushed Hall.
Two other witnesses said the three wrestled for Hall’s gun.
“I was trying to push him into the pond,” Tommy said. “I was trying to do anything I could to disarm him. I kept telling him, 'You’re out of bullets.’ ”
As Hall continued to struggle to keep his gun, Tommy said Hall told his girlfriend, Geraldine Bragg, to “get another clip.”
That statement sent Tommy and his brother Jimmy running for their own guns, Tommy said. Tommy retrieved a .22 revolver and a 9mm semiautomatic handgun from his house and rushed out the front door.
“I knew what area (Hall) was in because he was going to get another clip from his car,” Tommy said.
At least two people told police they convinced Jimmy to drop his gun.
But few noticed Tommy run by.
Tommy caught a glimpse of Hall as he ran with guns raised, toward cars parked at the south end of the farm.
Tommy said that as he rounded the back of a pickup truck, he saw Hall crouched, wrist over wrist, with a gun pointed at him.
The shot knocked Tommy to the ground. As people rushed to his aid, Jimmy veered toward Hall, unarmed, witnesses said.
“This puts Mike Hall in the middle of these two brothers,” Trotwood Detective Troy Dexter said. “That’s where (this case) gets a little bit murky.”
Hall and Jimmy wrestled, and Jimmy was shot three times during the scuffle, Dexter said.
‘They shot at me first’
Trotwood police did not question Michael Hall about the shooting.
He exercised his right to an attorney when Detective Dexter tried to interview him immediately after the shooting.
Hall, 54, of West Carrollton, also did not testify during the grand jury investigation.
In a recent interview with the Dayton Daily News, Hall — for the first time — gave his account of what led to the shooting.
He was a stranger to most at the party and a guest of his girlfriend, Geraldine Bragg. Bragg is the mother of Tommy and Jimmy’s stepmother.
Hall said he fired the warning shots at the party to break up a fight involving Bragg’s son, James Anders.
Hall said he wasn’t confronted by anyone after firing his handgun.
“The nearest person was 50 or 60 feet off me when I shot that gun in the air,” Hall said.
Hall said witness accounts saying that he asked Bragg to get another clip are complete fiction.
“What kind of guy would I be to get another clip and keep shooting?” Hall said. “That clip holds 14 or 15 rounds. I fired five into the air.”
Hall said that after he ran to his car, he saw Tommy approaching carrying guns and saw a “muzzle flash” from Tommy’s revolver.
That flash, Hall said, caused him to crouch down between two vehicles and wait for Tommy.
Hall said Tommy fired again while running around the rear of the truck, then Hall returned fire and watched Tommy fall down.
“I knew he was out of the way,” Hall said. “Jimmy ran around behind me. I don’t really know what happened. All I knew was Jimmy was shooting at me.”
Hall said he and Jimmy “slapped each other around” and during the scuffle his gun went off.
“I knew I shot him,” said Hall, who has no known criminal record. “The whole thing is a nightmare. Weird s— goes through your mind when you are trying to stay alive.”
Alcohol an issue?
Dexter said his investigation found no evidence that anyone other than Michael Hall fired a gun that night.
“There were 12 to 13 (shell casings recovered at the scene),” Dexter said. “All casings recovered were fired from the same gun.”
Hall was legally intoxicated at the time of the shooting, Dexter said. An autopsy found that Jimmy had a blood-alcohol level of .16 at the time of his death, said Ken Betz, director of the Montgomery County Coroner’s office.
His brother Tommy said he had a “few beers” before the shooting.
“Everyone was drinking,” Tommy said. “It was my birthday party.”
Dexter’s case was weakened because police failed to find the gun Jimmy allegedly dropped before confronting Hall.
The next day, the gun was found by a family friend, who held onto it for a week.
But Dexter questioned whether prosecutors presented all relevant evidence to the grand jury.
“I don’t know if the 911 calls were ever played for them,” he said. “I don’t believe they were.”
A portion of the 911 tape captures the moment Tommy Glascoe was shot, but cuts off before Jimmy is hit.
Dexter said the 911 call makes Tommy Glascoe’s recollection of the shooting “seem very credible.”
Prosecutor Mat Heck’s spokesman Greg Flannagan said, “All relevant evidence uncovered by the police ... was presented to the grand jury.”
The circumstances surrounding the shooting might be unusual, but the legal result is not.
Since the beginning of 2008, 10 of 66 homicide cases presented to Heck’s office were left for a grand jury to decide whether charges should be filed. In those cases, jurors declined to file charges eight times.
In 34 cases, a panel of three assistant prosecutors accepted and filed charges without a grand jury’s approval.
In the 22 others, prosecutors refused charges without gathering jurors.
The jury’s decision has caused irreversible damage to the Glascoe family, they said. Tommy said his dad recently moved out of state, in hopes that distance would erase the memories.
Dexter’s investigation hasn’t moved forward since jurors declined to indict Hall in November.
“Is it my feeling that it was a self-defense case? No.”
Jimmy’s longtime girlfriend, Jacklyn Allison, can’t understand why the man who killed the father of their 2-year-old son has not been charged.
She said she wishes Hall could’ve been there when doctors let her see Jimmy one last time.
“I told him it was OK for him to go, that I would raise our son the best I could,” Allison said. “Then I kissed him on the cheek.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2494 or lsullivan@Dayton DailyNews.com.
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