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Flag that has flown for soldiers killed in Iraq flies again as 1,500 visit Tallmadge funeral home
By Jim Carney
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Friday, Jul 18, 2008
TALLMADGE: A half-hour before calling hours were to begin Thursday afternoon for fallen Twinsburg police Officer Joshua Miktarian, a cloudburst pounded this town where he grew up.
Then, almost as suddenly as it had started, the rain ended and the summer sun shone down on the uniformed men and women who lined up in the parking lot of the Donovan Funeral Home to pay respects to one they called brother.
Miktarian, a 33-year-old Twinsburg police officer and Tallmadge native, was shot and killed while making a traffic stop Sunday morning.
''It hits home,'' Maj. Craig Gilbride, Akron's deputy police chief, said after leaving the funeral home on Tallmadge Circle with a contingent of more than 30 Akron officers.
Throughout the day, Akron officers caravaned in shifts to Tallmadge.
The 56-year-old Gilbride, who wore a black mourning band across his police badge, has been on the Akron force for 31 years and comes from a law-enforcement family. His grandfather, Jim Keith, and his brother, Jack Gilbride, served in the Akron Police Department, and he has two sons, Jimmy and Mike, on the force now.
Gilbride said Miktarian's killing ''brings into focus how dangerous police work is and how vigilant we have to be. . . . You just don't know how quickly things can change and how the circumstances can flip on you.''
Ashford Thompson, a 23-year-old Twinsburg resident, has been charged with aggravated murder in the shooting and is being held in the Summit County Jail in lieu of a $5 million bond.
Assistant Summit County prosecutors Brad Gessner and Brian LoPrinzi met with a grand jury Thursday afternoon at the Summit County Courthouse, but there was no word about an indictment. Gessner, head of the county prosecutor's criminal division, said he could not talk about the proceedings.
During the calling hours, a large American flag hung from a Tallmadge Fire Department ladder truck across the street from the funeral home.
''He was one of my kids,'' said Tallmadge Fire Chief Dennis Crossen, who coached Miktarian in youth football and later got help from Miktarian when he volunteered as a coach.
This was the third time in recent years that Tallmadge has flown the big flag for its high school graduates — the previous times for soldiers lost in Iraq.
''We use this flag to honor all our American heroes and Josh was one of them,'' Crossen said. ''Unfortunately, we've had practice at this.''
On the streets surrounding Tallmadge Circle, police officers from Tallmadge, Akron, Stow, Mogadore, Munroe Falls, Brimfield Township, Kent and the Summit County Sheriff's Office assisted with traffic and crowd control as visitors drove to the funeral home.
Tallmadge police Officer Mike Dornack, 35, who lives in Green, said the law-enforcement community feels a huge sense of loss.
''We all feel the same,'' he said. '' . . . We lost a brother. We're hurting.''
By the time the last of the mourners made their way into the funeral home to pay their respects, officials estimate more than 1,500 had passed through the doors.
Jim Carney can be reached at 330-996-3576 or jcarney@thebeaconjournal.com.
TALLMADGE: A half-hour before calling hours were to begin Thursday afternoon for fallen Twinsburg police Officer Joshua Miktarian, a cloudburst pounded this town where he grew up.
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