Recordpub.com - Injured officer has ties to Kent: Was Pittsburgh shooting victim; relatives local

By Andrew Schunk

Twinsburg Bulletin Editor

Only about a week before a murder trial in the shooting death of Twinsburg police officer Joshua Miktarian was set to begin, another police tragedy with ties to local law enforcement has occurred.

Pittsburgh police officer Timothy McManaway, 45, who was wounded in the hand during an shootout Saturday that took the lives of three officers, served as a Reminderville police officer in 1985 and still has friends and family in the area.

Reminderville is a village located in northeastern Summit County, bordering Aurora.

“I didn’t worry about him in Reminderville as much,” said Angie McManaway, the officer’s ex-wife who lives in Kent with their daughter, 20-year-old Sarah. “Now he’s just shocked that he has to get ready to attend three funerals.”

According to the Associated Press, McManaway was injured as he tried to pull veteran officer Eric Kelly, 41, out of the line of fire during the four-hour standoff.

Kelly, a good friend of McManaway’s, had responded to a domestic violence call for backup after his shift ended at 7 a.m. Kelly later died at a Pittsburgh hospital.

Pittsburgh officers Paul Sciullo III, 37, and Stephen Mayhle, 29, the first officers to respond to a 911 call from a mother who said her son was becoming violent, were both fatally shot at the scene.

Sarah McManaway said she watched the shocking events unfold live on television from her home just after 7 a.m. — and recalled seeing her father’s face as camera crews captured him struggling to pull Kelly to safety behind an SUV.

“I knew that was him,” Sarah said. “But I didn’t know he’d been injured. It was just a real wake up call … that something like this can happen to my dad.”

Angie said she spoke to her ex-husband Sunday, and that he’s “doing pretty well” with his hand injury, but that he “refuses to take his pain medication.”

“I’m proud of my dad,” Sarah said. “He still wants to do this even after his injury, and he never gives up.”

Reminderville Sgt. Mike Varga recalled McManaway — his colleague on the village force for about a year — as an officer who wanted to be around the action.

“That’s the kind of guy Tim was,” Varga said. “It does not surprise me what he did, pulling another officer out of the way while taking fire.”

The standoff began just after 7 a.m. when a gunman — believed to be 23-year-old Richard Poplawski — wearing a bulletproof vest and armed with an assault rifle, opened fire on the officers when they entered the home.

By the time the standoff ended with Poplawski shot in the legs and surrendering to police, more than 100 rounds had been fired by police commando teams and the gunman, police said.

Poplawski has been charged with three counts of homicide, aggravated assault and a weapons violation.