East Texas

By KENNETH DEAN
Staff Writer

FRANKSTON — Frankston police officer Jason Ward remains hospitalized in fair condition this morning following a Thursday fight with a burglary suspect who was shot dead by other officers, following a brief car chase and foot pursuit only blocks away from the Frankston school complex.

Ward is in the intensive care unit at East Texas Medical Center in Tyler after he was beaten about the head area Thursday as he tried to arrest alleged burglary suspect Jason Jermaine Cumby, 29, of Athens.

Anderson County Sheriff’s Department officer Greg Taylor said the ordeal started when a resident phoned in a report of a home burglary in progress on Farm-to-Market Road 319, then followed the suspects to Frankston.

Taylor said Anderson County dispatchers contacted Frankston police who immediately began looking for the suspect vehicle -- a 90s-model gray Cadillac.

When the officers attempted to stop the Cadillac, the car sped away, but failed to negotiate a left-hand turn from Texas Highway 155 onto Reed Street and crashed into several small trees.

"One of the suspects got out of the car and laid down on the ground and was handcuffed, the other suspect took off on foot and the officer (Ward) went after him," Taylor said.

The sheriff added several Henderson County Sheriff deputies also responded because they were in the area for of a funeral.

At some point, Ward confronted Cumby and was injured. One official at the scene said the officer had been beat in the head with his own weapon, but Taylor would not confirm the report.

"We are still in the early stages and the Texas Rangers will be heading up the investigation because of the officer-related shooting," he said.

Across 155 from where scores of emergency vehicles and crime scene tape kept the area secure, more than 100 people gathered to wait for news. Many of those onlookers were family members of Cumby.

Taylor said it was unclear what happened next, but the suspect was shot dead and the officer was transported by helicopter due to his injuries.

"We got called in Athens that my boy had been shot and killed," Louis Cofer said. "I hoped and prayed all the way over here that it wasn’t true, but the sheriff told me my son is under that sheet and we can’t see him, because that is a crime scene."

Cofer said his son was on parole at the time of the shooting, but he never knew his son to be violent.

"We just don’t know what happened, and that makes all of this harder to deal with," he said.

There was weeping and many unanswered questions.

Some family members said there was no way Cumby was involved in a burglary and said he had changed.

"Everyone can change," one family member said. One local resident said he saw the chase and the crash, but had gone back to his home a block away before the shooting.

"All of the sudden we heard about 8 to 10 gunshots and I didn’t know if we should get down on the floor or what. It was really pretty scary," Mike Ballard said.

The second burglary suspect was taken to the Anderson County Jail. Taylor said it was not known at this time what charges the suspect, who remains unnamed, will be charged with.

"Well I’m sure there will be burglary charges, but if there will be other charges is just not known at this time," he said.

Updated Friday, Nov. 14, 2008 at 8:55 a.m. CST

Frankston officer Jason Ward
(Photo courtesy Frankston Citizen)