Man killed by Lakemoor police was wanted for stabbing 88-year-old to death in Pennsylvania
A man wanted for robbing and killing an 88-year-old man in Pennsylvania was killed in an officer-involved shooting early Thursday in Lakemoor, authorities said.
Kenneth Martell, 36, was asleep in his vehicle on a desolate gravel road on the west side of Four Seasons Boulevard near West Sullivan Lake Road about 5 a.m. when a Lakemoor police officer saw his SUV parked backward and in an unusual manner and decided to check it out, Lake County Major Crimes Task Force spokesman Christopher Covelli said.
The officer approached the vehicle to investigate and made contact with Martell. As she was speaking with Martell, he pulled out a handgun and a struggle ensued, Covelli said.
During the struggle a second officer from Lakemoor arrived and saw Martell pull out a second handgun, Covelli said.
This prompted one of the officers to fire at Martell, who died on the scene, Covelli said.
Covelli said he could not comment on which officer fired at Martell.
The officers were taken to a hospital for evaluation and released Thursday afternoon. Neither was hurt, Covelli said.
Preliminary autopsy results from the Lake County coroner's office indicated Martell died from injuries sustained by a gunshot wound to the face.
Pennsylvania police had been seeking Martell in connection with the murder of a man who was stabbed during a robbery and dumped into a pond.
The Meadville Tribune reports the body of 88-year-old Theodore Garver of Beaver Township was recovered about 11 a.m. Tuesday from a pond in northwestern Crawford County.
Pennsylvania State Police issued a warrant for Martell on charges of first-degree homicide and terroristic threats.
Garver was a retired attorney living out his life in the Pennsylvania countryside, just days from his 89th birthday, ABC 7 Chicago reported.
Investigators say what started as a home invasion by Martel ended with Garver stabbed and slashed.
According to a criminal complaint in Pennsylvania, Martell then forced three people at gunpoint to help him take the body to a nearby pond. Authorities say two of the helpers were Martell's mother and her boyfriend, ABC reported.
State police say Martell then went on the lam.
Public records do not reveal that Martell has any links to Illinois, ABC reported. The silver Kia discovered on the gravel road in Lakemoor was the same one Pennsylvania authorities had cited in alerts after Monday's murder there.
“It's shocking and it's dreadful,” the victim's son, Ted Garver, told ABC-TV affiliate WJET in Erie, Pennsylvania. “At 89 this Sunday, you never knew when something was going to happen, but this isn't what you would expect would happen.”
Garver's family said that since he moved to Pennsylvania from Cleveland, they considered it a safe place until the home invasion on Monday.