MANSFIELD, Ohio — Forty years ago on Saturday, Mansfield Police Officer Michael E. Hutchison lost his life in the line of duty after he was shot by his own gun.
MPD issued a press release Friday to remember Hutchison’s life and other Mansfield police officers who have lost their lives in the line of duty.
The press release also recognized Danville Officer Thomas Cottrell, who was shot and killed Jan. 18.
According to a press release issued Feb. 6, 1976, an auxiliary police patrolman, Roger Casler, was also shot on the scene but did not die. The two were responding to the T&A Thrift Mart at 660 S. Diamond St. when they were dispatched for “a suspicious man attempting to cash a check which had been stolen during a purse snatching the previous day.”
Witnesses said they saw the police officers confronting the male and female suspects in the parking lot as they left the market.
An altercation ensued. “The male subject succeeded in obtaining one of the officer’s revolvers, both officers were then shot,” read the press release from 1976.
Witnesses then said to other officers arriving on the scene that the two suspects fled in a vehicle that picked them up. The three fled and were later arrested at interstate 71 and state Route 97 by highway patrolmen. They also recovered the revolver believed to have been used to shoot the two officers.
Charles Cotton, the man who shot and killed officer Hutchison, is still in prison, according to the press release.
Hutchison served in the Vietnam War in the navy before joining the Mansfield Police Department March 3, 1973. According to Friday’s press release, he was survived by his wife Scarlet, his son Kevin and his daughter Debra.
