Harry Mitts was executed by the State of Ohio for a double murder. According to court documents Harry Mitts would shoot and kill the first victim when he was walking across the parking lot. During the police search for the gunman Harry Mitts would fire several shots through the door striking and killing a police officer. Harry Mitts would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Harry Mitts would be executed by lethal injection on September 25, 2013
Harry Mitts More News
Garfield Heights killer Harry Mitts Jr. was executed Wednesday after spending nearly two decades on death row for gunning down his neighbor and a police officer.
A lethal injection stopped Mitts’ heart at 10:39 a.m.
Mitts, 61, was sentenced to death in November 1994 after a full-bore firefight at his apartment complex that left neighbor John Bryant and Garfield Heights Police Sgt. Dennis Glivar dead.
Harry Mitts used his last words to ask for forgiveness and encourage the victims’ families to find salvation in Jesus Christ.
“I’m so sorry for taking your loved ones’ lives,” Mitts said with tears in his eyes. “I had no business doing what I did and I’ve been carrying that burden with me for 19 years.
“Please don’t carry that hatred for me with you in your hearts.”
Mitts’ lethal injection lasted nearly 35 minutes.
At 10:05 a.m., corrections officers walked a calm Mitts into the death chamber, where he was strapped to a steel bed and hooked up to lines that would deliver deadly chemicals.
After his final words, Mitts stared at the ceiling while authorities in another room delivered the injection.
Harry Mitts closed his eyes and took increasingly labored breaths. About a minute later, he began to snore.
The snoring soon stopped and Mitts’ breathing gradually slowed. His face turned blue by the time he took his last peaceful gasp.
Harry Mitts is the last person to be put to death in Ohio using the drug pentobarbital. The state’s supply of pentobarbital was expected to run out with Mitts’ executions today. Department of Rehabilitation and Correction will announce by Oct. 4 how it will respond, according to spokeswoman Ricky Seyfang
“I know its wrong, but I still have hatred for him,” said Bryant’s sister Johnnal after the execution.
Glivar’s widow Debbie said she would never forgive Mitts.
Mitts’ friend Gary Hopkins joined ministers Edward Jenkins and Lucian Piaskowiak on the inmate’s side of the witness room.
All of the witnesses watched in silence as Mitts slipped away.
Harry Mitts began his hours-long rampage on the evening of Aug. 14, 1994 by firing a laser-sighted round into Bryant’s chest as Bryant and his girlfriend were returning home from grocery shopping.
Bryant, who was black, and his girlfriend, who was white, were walking from the parking lot to their apartment when Mitts approached the couple.
He raised his gun, uttered racial slurs and shot 28-year-old Bryant point blank. Against Mitts’ orders, neighbors carried Bryant to a second-floor apartment and waited for help to arrive.
Harry Mitts then walked away, randomly firing his weapon, and prepared for the imminent police response. Mitts hoped for a suicide by cop, according to Ohio Parole Board documents.
Harry Mitts fired eight to 10 rounds at the first patrol car to approach the complex and then fled to his first-floor apartment.
Glivar and Kaiser arrived soon after and located Bryant, who bled out before they arrived. The officers returned downstairs to ensure the building was safe for paramedics to enter.
That is when Mitts, who clenched a .44 Magnum in one fist and a 9 mm pistol in the other, sprung open his apartment door and let loose a volley of gunfire.
Glivar, 44, was shot seven times. Bullets ripped through his heart, lung, liver, kidney and stomach. He collapsed near the door, dropped his shotgun and died within minutes.
Kaiser was shot in the chest and hand but managed to force Mitts to retreat by firing in the killer’s direction. Kaiser then took cover upstairs and kept watch on Mitts’ apartment.
“We didn’t even know he lived there,” Kaiser said Tuesday. “He was just waiting for us. Maybe he was looking through his peephole. He took us by surprise.”
Kaiser tried to talk Mitts into surrendering. Mitts refused.
“The only way we’re going to end this is if you kill me,” Mitts shouted, according to clemency documents. “You have to come down. You have to do your job and you have to kill me.”
Minutes later, Maple Heights Police Officer John Mackey arrived at the complex and helped Kaiser rescue tenants upstairs by guiding them down a ladder propped against a back window.
Mackey and Kaiser then took positions outside Mitts apartment while the gunman fired sporadic shots using Glivar’s dropped shotgun and weapons from his home arsenal.
At one point, Mitts was able to pick out Mackey’s location by the sound of the officer’s voice carrying through the hallway.
Harry Mitts fired through a wall and hit Mackey.
The bloody gun battle ended hours later when a SWAT team shot tear gas into Mitts’ apartment and subdued the wounded triggerman.
Mitts was charged with the aggravated murders of Bryant and Glivar, and the attempted murders of Kaiser and Mackey.
Three months later, the man with no previous criminal record was sentenced to death.
Authorities found thousands of rounds of ammunition in Mitts’ home and a bumper sticker that read: “Gun control means hitting what you aim at.”
The Ohio Parole Board said Mitts’ deadly confrontation is “clearly among the worst of the worst capital cases.”
Mitts began to tailspin in the weeks leading to the massacre. He began stalking his ex wife and her new husband, and admitted he thought about assassinating the man
Prosecutors argued Mitts’ attack was racially motivated, but defense attorneys contended Mitts killed Bryant only to lure police.
Last week, Gov. John Kasich denied Mitts clemency, siding with the parole board’s unanimous recommendation to carry out the death sentence.
Mitts told the parole board in August he found God while incarcerated at the Cuyahoga County Jail and looked forward to living “in perpetuity with Jesus Christ” after his execution
https://www.cleveland.com/metro/2013/09/harry_mitts_jr_executed.html