Remembering Police Officer Charles Burdsall

 

“508 – 508”

On July 15, 1978, an off-duty officer inside the King Kwik convenience market at McMicken and Dixmyth Avenues was suspicious of two men in a vehicle who appeared to be casing the store for a robbery. The officer’s instincts were correct because those men, Russell Bell and his co-defendant Wayne Reed, were planning to rob the convenience store. Each was armed with a gun and ready to kill. Their plans changed when the off-duty police officer communicated his concern to Cincinnati Police.

Bell and and his co-defendant, Reed, attempted to flee from the area when they realized their plans had been found out. Cincinnati Police Officer Charles Burdsall, a Vietnam veteran, stopped the suspicious vehicle at 3001 West McMicken Avenue. As Officer Burdsall approached the car, Wayne Reed suddenly came from the driver’s door, squatted into a crouch position, raised his revolver, and shot three times at Officer Burdsall from only a few feet away. Reed shot Officer Burdsall in the mouth and then shot him again in the back and the side as Officer Burdsall fell to the ground. Reed then pivoted and shot twice at David Mellon, a teenage citizen observer riding with Officer Burdsall that evening. Reed got back into the car and drove away.

Officer Burdsall, who was still alive, was mortally wounded. Mellon, shot once in the back, ran from the passenger side of the police cruiser, grabbed Officer Burdsall’s revolver, and shot at the suspects as the car pulled away. He then picked up Officer Burdsall’s radio and called for help, but had trouble recalling the Car Number. Officer Burdsall said, “508 – 508” – his last words.

Officer Burdsall and David Mellon were taken to General Hospital, where Officer Burdsall died at 4:30 a.m. Officer Burdsall is buried in St. Joseph (New) Cemetery, Section 9B, Lot 87. He left a wife, Karen, and three children, Melissa (7), Eric (5), and Christopher (3), and his parents, Charles A. and Martha. His brother, Donald Burdsall, retired as a Lieutenant from the Police Department several years later.

David Mellon would survive his wounds.

After their escape, Bell and Reed worked together in an attempt to cover up their crime by wiping down the car, removing the license plates and hiding their guns. The cover-up attempt failed because several of Mellon’s shots connected with the vehicle. Those bullet holes later helped identify Reed and Bell as the murderers of Officer Burdsall.

From Death Row To Parole Eligibility

A short time after Officer Burdsall’s murder, Wayne Reed and Russell Bell were arrested. Wayne Reed told investigators that he would have shot any officer who got in his way. Based on overwhelming evidence, a jury convicted Reed and Bell of murder for killing Officer Burdsall and attempted murder for trying to kill David Mellon. Both were sentenced to die in the electric chair for their crimes.

In 1978, The Supreme Court of the State of Ohio, after considering the judgment of the Supreme Court of the United States in the cases of Lockett v. Ohio and Bell v. Ohio, modified that all Ohio death sentences be commuted to life imprisonment with the opportunity for parole. This made both Reed and Bell parole eligible.