Badge: P347
Age: 40
Served: 4 years 2 months
July 7, 1996 to September 1, 2000
OFFICER
Kevin was born September 29, 1959 in Cincinnati to Abraham Curtis and Barbara Jean (Jones) Crayon. He attended Forest Park High School and graduated in 1977.
Almost immediately after graduation, July 1977, Kevin joined the United States Army. His basic training was in Arizona and then he shipped to Ansbach, Germany for almost two years. Private First-Class Crayon was honorably discharged on July 10, 1980.
From 1981 to 1983 he attended Cochise College in Arizona.
Beginning in September 1989, he worked as a civilian warehouse man at the United States Army base, Camp Darby, in Georgia, then as an accounting technician. In August of 1993, he went to Fort Hood in Texas and worked as a test data collector for the M1A2 tank. Also during 1993, he went back to school for a semester at the University of Texas.
From 1994 to 1996 he worked as a service technician at Monarch Marketing in Idaho.
Kevin’s father died in Lansing, Michigan in May 1996. Around that time, Kevin moved back to Cincinnati.
On July 7, 1996, Kevin joined the Cincinnati Police Division as a Police Recruit. He was promoted to Police Officer on December 1, 1996, issued Badge 347, and assigned to District 2 (3295 Erie Avenue). By then end of 1999, he was already working with little supervision and the expectation of at least one of his sergeants was that he would soon be a relief leader. On February 6, 2000, Officer Crayon rotated to District 5 (1012 Ludlow Avenue). By September 2000, Officer Crayon, in one capacity or another, had already served our country and community, off and on, for eleven years. He also had three letters of appreciation and/or commendation, including one from the Fairfax Police Chief.
INCIDENT
When Officer Crayon pulled his patrol car into the lot, he parked next to the Taurus.
Mathis asked the store clerk for a paper funnel, apparently to put oil into his uncle’s car. He was nervously looking out the front windows toward where he parked the car. He left the store without making a purchase and got into the driver’s side of the Taurus.
Officer Crayon alighted from his car with the intention of going into the store, but noticing Mathis and suspecting his age, he went to the driver’s door of the Taurus, notebook in hand, and requested to see his driver’s license.
Simultaneously, Anthony Bell parked his vehicle, loaded with his wife and children, to the right of and behind the Taurus. The whole family got out of Bell’s vehicle and as Mr. Bell walked past Officer Crayon, apparently curious as to what he was doing, Officer Crayon mentioned that Mathis looked too young to drive. With that, Mathis revved the engine and put the Taurus in reverse.
Officer Crayon, seeing the danger in which the Bell children were in, yelled, “Hold up! Hold up! There are kids behind the car!” He then ran to and reached into the car with both hands in an effort to turn the key. Mathis backed out of the parking space, fortunately missing the Bell family, then drove forward onto Colerain Avenue dragging Officer Crayon alongside.
Driving south on Colerain Avenue, Mathis accelerated to a high rate of speed and steered the car, zigzagging back and forth. He was headed toward a 1995 Cadillac stopped at the traffic light at North Bend Road, possibly to sideswipe it to knock off the officer. Officer Crayon freed his right hand, drew his sidearm, and fired one shot striking Mathis in the left chest. Whatever was holding Officer Crayon released. He dropped onto the roadway, skidded about 800 feet across the pavement, suffering only scrapes, burns, and bruising. But then his head struck the muffler of the Cadillac, so hard in fact that the driver thought the Taurus had struck his car.
Mathis continued on Colerain, striking a Chevrolet Cavalier, and then onto his residence at 5426 Bahama Terrace. The driver of the Cadillac chased the Taurus down Colerain Avenue while calling Police Communications on his cellular phone and reporting what he thought was a hit skip accident. Choosing not to go to the townhouse, he stopped, inspected his car, found no damage, and left the scene, not knowing that Officer Crayon lay in the intersection.
Mathis walked inside his home, announced to his mother that he was shot by the Police, and collapsed. She called 9-1-1 and the Cincinnati Fire Division responded. Rescue Unit No. 28 transported him to Children’s Hospital where he died at 5:07 a.m.
DEATH
The impact with the Cadillac muffler killed Officer Crayon instantly. He was the fourth District 5 officer to die in little more than three years. Police Specialist Ronald Jeter and Police Officer Daniel Pope were shot to death on December 6, 1997 and Police Officer William Estes, on January 12, 2000, died on his way home from work in a motorcycle accident less than 1½ miles from the District 5 stationhouse. A dark cloud seemed to hang over District 5.
Officer Crayon was survived by his mother, Barbara (Crayon) Allbright; children, Kevin Curtis Crayon II, Christopher Keith Crayon, and Brittany Denise Crayon; brother, Shawn Anthony Crayon; stepfather, Herbert Albright, and stepsiblings, Vincent Toran, Keith Andre Albright, and Vicki Denise Travis.
An eight-hour visitation was held at Hall-Jordan and Thompson Funeral Home at 11400 Winton Road in Forest Park on Wednesday, September 3, 2000. It was barely enough time for all his mourners to file by the casket. Reverend Jim Vickers, Jr. officiated over funeral services at the Lincoln Heights Missionary Baptist Church in Woodlawn on Thursday, September 4th, at 10 a.m. From there hundreds of regional police officers escorted Officer Crayon to his final resting place in Oak Hill Cemetery, Glendale, Ohio. His pallbearers included Police Officers Kevin Brown, Brian Norris, Joe Grady, Joehonny Reese, William Keuper, and Robert Posey.
EPILOGUE
The Fraternal Order of Police, Queen City Lodge No. 69 immediately established a memorial fund for the benefit of Officer Crayon’s children.
No charges were brought against Mathis’s parents due to the fact that they had merely fallen asleep when he snuck out.
Regardless of the death of both people involved, the Division’s Homicide Unit and Internal Investigation Section and Hamilton County Coroner’s Office still had to investigate the incident. Given the evidence found at the time, on June 9, 2001, HamiltonCounty Prosecutor Mike Allen determined that Officer Crayon had committed no crime. After an extensive 16-month investigation, in February 2002, the Division exonerated Police Officer Crayon of any wrongdoing, legally or administratively.
Immediately upon his death, Officer Crayon’s name and story were added to the Police Department’s electronic line of duty death memorial at www.CincinnatiPolice.org. Barely three years in existence, and the first of its kind, already three men were added to it.
Slightly older at 11 years, was the Cincinnati Police Fraternal Order of Police Memorial at 311 Ezzard Charles Drive. Officer Crayon was almost immediately added to that memorial. The Police Division retired Badge No. 347, the 20th badge number to be retired for a line of duty death. Soon after, a plaque was created and added to the Cincinnati Police Memorial at the Cincinnati Police Academy.
On May 10, 2001, Officer Crayon’s name was added to Ohio’s Peace Officer Memorial in London, Ohio. On May 13, 2001, Officer Crayon’s name was officially added to the National Law Enforcement Officer Memorial in Washington D.C.
Officer Crayon’s only full sibling, Shawn, passed away in 2006. His mother died in 2015 and stepfather in 2021. We do not know what became of Officer Crayon’s children.
If you know of any information, artifacts, archives, or images regarding this officer or incident, please contact the Greater Cincinnati Police Museum at Memorial@Police-Museum.org.
© This narrative was revised on August 21, 2025 by Cincinnati Police Lieutenant Stephen R. Kramer (Retired), Greater Cincinnati Police Historical Society President/CEO. All rights are reserved to him and the Greater Cincinnati Police Museum.