I went to school with Paul. He and I were friends until High School. He was a very troubled soul with an even more trouble homelife. His mother is a very horrible person. Any of their neighbors on Jones Rd can verify that she is borderline insane. The fact that she treated him worse than the family dog and then asks for money make me want to vomit. She is a piece of crap.
I do believe that his death was tragic and wish that he could have got the help he needed. However, no theft=no death. This time it was food from Giant Eagle, what next? He had a history with drug and alcohol abuse. He had also been known to steal. I am saddened by his death, but giving her money will not fix a horrible situation.

Oh I get the arithmetic now... We'll just grab everyone that breaks the law from speeding to parking tickets to petty theft and take them to the center of town... Let the citizens burn them at the stake... No judge... no jury.... and let the citizens decide who lives and who dies....

We sure have progressed as a society and a civilization.....

No the calculation would be:

Idiot stealing + resisting lawful detainment x several citizens fed up with criminal behavior = dead criminal who had no regard for the law, respect for others property and the peace and dignity of the state of Ohio.

Loss prevention specialists = judge, jury and executioner?

WhizZard - I have to totally disagree with you. It's unfortunate the man died, but he put himself into that situation. We always hear people saying, "more people need to get involved, fight back, the criminals are taking over, etc., etc. Well, in this case they did fight back and he lost. I have no sympathy for this guy - I think it's unfortunate he died, but he put himself there. If I were on the jury, his family wouldn't win - I'M SICK AND TIRED OF CRIME AND THE CRIMINAL'S RIGHTS - The "good" people have lost their rights and we need to start taking them back.

Very good point you have made.

Very good point you have made.

I have one comment, stealing is not right. Noone deserves to die or have excessive force from employees. Many years ago I was in that store and I was into rebating and couponing. I had picked up some rebate forms and coupons and left the store. On my way out I was stopped taken back to a back room, and asked to open my purse. I said no and asked them to tell me what I took. They could not tell me. I sat my purse on the counter and they didn't touch it. Needless to say I sued them and they bought my first computer and other things. I worked loss prevention while I was in college and I knew the rules. The moment they stopped my and couldn't tell me what I took and the fact that I hadn't stole anything
they didn't have a leg to stand on. I was enbarassed and detained which is unlawful. I could have just kept on walking out the door, if they had laid a hand on me they would have been in really bad trouble. So I have no cooment against that Rootstown Giant Eagle in the manner they handle shoplifters. I had fold out also that a meat employee saw me take something from the shelf, (which was a coupon) told a bag boy and he had stopped me. The law is you see someone take something you know what it is. You follow that person until they leave the store then you stop them. You have to know the item the take, and make sure they didn't sit it down elsewhere in the store or paid for it and they need to exit the store showing intent not to pay.
Even after all that, and that person has stolen you can not use deadly force or kill someone.

Amen Ohio Gal, nothing in this world can justify this man stealing. Everyone else in this world has to pay for their groceries, so I don't think there was any good excuse as to why he stole. There are food cupboards and free meal halls all over the place. This man did not decide to go in to this store to buy a loaf of bread and then change his mind and steal 280 dollars worth of items while in there. He went in with the intent and they do have employees trained to deal with thieves in most stores. They are called loss prevention specialists.

Whiz...It's pretty easy after the fact to call the plays. Monday morning quarterbacking.

Maybe had the guy not been violent to start with. As I stated below the appeal is very clear on assigning some culpability to this mad man.

I'm stick stuck on being curious of what the heck a single guy put in his cart to total 280 bucks...

He broke the law and he lost, his life, sad to say. We are going to see more of this kind of theft and antics with the economy headed in the direction it is.

A million bucks won't bring her son back to her, and in the end we all pay. The ability of your family to sue should be voided if you were injured or killed during the commission of a crime.