TWINSBURG, Ohio — They came from across the state Friday to hear stories about the little boy with the bowl haircut who became a police officer.
The man whose hands were as comfortable carrying a Fender guitar as a Glock handgun.
The dad who plastered his desk with large pictures of his baby girl – a child who will never know him.
More than 4,000 people filled Mount Zion Church in Oakwood to remember Twinsburg Patrolman Joshua Miktarian, 33.
Miktarian was gunned down during a traffic stop Sunday morning on Glenwood Drive, where authorities say Ashford Thompson fired four shots into the officer's head during a confrontation in Thompson's driveway.
Thompson, 23, is being held on a $5 million bond. He is expected to be indicted soon on a charge of aggravated murder, which could carry the death penalty.
Police began arriving at Mount Zion about 7:30 a.m., three hours before the service. More than 100 police canines – Miktarian himself had had a police-dog partner – playfully yapped outside cruisers before the service began.
After the motorcade left Donovan Funeral Home in Tallmadge en route to the church, hundreds of people lined Ohio 91 through Munroe Falls, Stow, Hudson and Twinsburg. Small flags were planted in the tree lawns. There were children on bicycles, young mothers with babies in strollers and elderly men and women using canes.
The procession of about 25 cars moved quickly to Mount Zion. One of the leading vehicles was a Twinsburg squad car carrying Miktarian's police dog, Bagio.
Miktarian's wife, Holly, was the first to enter the church.
A patrolwoman, she wore her Oakwood police uniform, with her red hair tied in a ponytail. The Miktarians' 3-month-old daughter, Thea, was not with her, and it was unclear whether she attended.
The service helped connect the friends Miktarian made through various interests in life – his pizza parlor, Gionino's, in Sagamore Hills; his rock band, Barium; and his 11-year career as a Twinsburg police officer. The friends called Miktarian a practical joker who could make a room crack up.
"Everything had a punch line to it," said Carrie Williams, whose husband, Jonathan, is Barium's lead singer. "He could make light out of any situation."
Kim Diamond-Roman, who managed the recording studio where Barium produced its first record, "Periodicals," said Miktarian was often the person friends leaned on.
"He was the first person to call when you were depressed," she said. "He would say, 'Aw, come on. Let's go have a beer. It'll be OK.' I can't believe I now have to use the word 'was' to describe him."
During the service, Twinsburg Patrolman David Fenske, who worked the night shift with Miktarian, said the two joked back and forth for years.
A few years back, Miktarian parked the department's traffic trailer that flashed how fast motorists were driving on now-Chief Christopher Noga's tree lawn so often that the flowers began to die. When Miktarian admitted what he had done, a sergeant refused to believe him. Instead, the officer blamed Fenske.
Fenske said officers knew Miktarian had arrived for his midnight shift because they could hear him lugging in bags of fast food from various restaurants, including pizza from his competitors.
Fenske pulled out Miktarian's Tallmadge High School yearbook and read his friend's ambitions.
He wanted to do his part in easing racial divides, continue studying martial arts and become the best cop "east of the Mississippi River."
His friends say he accomplished his goals. He became a husband and a father.
"He had arrived," Noga said.
As the 90-minute service concluded, police officers in dress blues went back outside in temperatures in the 90s. Many waited more than an hour to join a 1,000-car procession, which drove by the Police Department en route to Crown Hill Cemetery.
The graveside service included a horse without a rider, bagpipes and a silent salute from a mother of a son who died in Iraq.
The family and city officials closed the service to the public, but Linda Dillon of Edinburg Township and her sister, Beverly Nissel of Streetsboro, stood along a road in the cemetery to honor Miktarian.
Dillon's son, Army Cpl. Benjamin Dillon, was killed in Iraq in October 2007. The sisters waited for hours to hoist large flags as the procession arrived.
During the service, a minister prayed that God would shine on Miktarian and grant him peace. Meanwhile, two Cleveland police helicopters flew overhead as an officer played "Amazing Grace" on a bagpipe. Miktarian's casket was placed under a green awning that shielded a sunny sky.
The ceremony drew to a close when Twinsburg retired Miktarian's badge number, 45. A single officer spoke:
"Last call for officer Josh Miktarian."
