END OF WATCH: December 10, 1977
Lodi Police Department
Age: 31
Captain Summers was appointed to the police force on January 4, 1970.
On December 5, 1977, at 3:15 am, Captain Carl Summers and Patrolman Steve Gray, in two separate cruisers, pulled over an allegedly stolen pickup truck on Avon Lake Road, just north of Lodi. As the truck came to a stop, the driver fled on foot with Patrolman Gray in pursuit. Captain Summers remained with the vehicles.
When Patrolman Gray retuned with the suspect in custody, he found Captain Summers lying on the road, unconscious, struck by a hit-skip vehicle. Summers was transported to Akron City Hospital where died of his injuries.
Carl Summers’s name is inscribed on the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Wall, Washington, D.C. panel 63, west wall, line 7.
By: P.O. Rance Hobert, Retired, Cleveland Police Dept.
