CINCINNATI — Two men who were convicted of murdering a Cincinnati police officer in 1979 and shooting one other person were denied parole, according to the Hamilton County Prosecutor’s Office.
In May, Hamilton County Prosecutor Melissa Powers asked members of the public to contact the Ohio Parole Board and express opposition to the parole of Wayne Reed and Russell Bell during a press conference.
According to a release from Powers’ office, Bell and Reed shot and killed Officer Charles Burdsall and shot and wounded a 19-year-old civilian who’d been on a ride-along with Burdsall.
On July 14, 1978, an off-duty CPD officer spotted Reed and Bell casing a convenience store at the corner of Dixmyth and McMicken Avenue; that officer alerted CPD and Burdsall, who was patrolling nearby, responded to the store for a possible armed robbery. With Burdsall was a 19-year-old man doing a citizen ride-along as he considered a career in law enforcement, …