Officers returned fire and shot the suspect, who was fleeing another fatal shooting. The suspect, Maurice Fareed, 24, later died.
Police said later that Fareed killed Brian Catron, 31, of Middletown, about 3:15 p.m. as Catron delivered potato chips to an Antietam Avenue market owned by Fareed's family. Then Fareed drove Catron's delivery truck the several blocks to police headquarters and opened fire, killing Grossnickle and seriously wounding Cleaver before being killed by police gunfire.
During the hours and days before the shooting, Fareed had been preoccupied with whether he had been given opportunities in life and whether he had been receiving the appropriate respect by people of his race and other races, authorities said later.
Grossnickle was pronounced dead at 4:14 p.m. He was the son of homicide Sgt. Larry Grossnickle and grandson of retired Officer Lyle Grossnickle.
Both Grossnickle and Cleaver had been police officers just a few months, since Feb. 9, 1996.
Hundreds - including a recovering Cleaver - attended Grossnickle's funeral, which a reporter described: "The funeral procession, which started at the University of Dayton Arena, blocked traffic and attracted attention as it snaked along Salem Avenue to Union Road. From a distance, the cars red and blue flashing lights looked like a string of Christmas lights nearly 10 miles long, their glow softened by Memorial Days mist and rain."
About the Author