Police Officer Dragged to Death

Friday, September 1st 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

CINCINNATI (AP) â€” An officer attempting to stop a 12-year-old boy from driving a car was dragged to his death early Friday, and the boy was shot to death, apparently by the officer, police said.

Officer Kevin Crayon, 40, died of head injuries suffered when he fell from the moving car, police said. The driver, Courtney Mathis, died about four hours later after undergoing emergency surgery at Children's Hospital Medical Center.

Crayon had approached the car in the parking lot of a convenience store about 12:45 a.m. and tried to snatch the keys out of the ignition. The officer was dragged with his arm through the driver's side window, police said.

It was not clear how the boy obtained the car and its keys, police said.

Witnesses said they heard shots fired. Crayon may have been able to pull out his gun and fire the shot that killed the boy, police said, but the precise source of the shot was not immediately confirmed.

``This is a tremendous shock on the department,'' Police Chief Thomas Streicher said.

The officer was dragged about a block before he fell into the street in the Mount Airy neighborhood. The car continued for about another block before it was involved in a minor crash, police said.

Crayon, a father of three, had been a Cincinnati officer since 1996.

The officer died ``because some young punk was driving a car. It's unbelievable,'' said Keith Fangman, president of the local Fraternal Order of Police.

It marked the first Cincinnati police death since two officers were killed in December 1997 while trying to serve a warrant.