By Dan Majors
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
PITTSBURGH — Michael Crawshaw grew up loving his family, his friends and hunting. His love of police work came a little later in life.
“I don’t think he grew up necessarily wanting to be a police officer, but he fell in love with the job,” his aunt, Pat Schwartzbauer of Franklin Park, said last night. “His first job was behind a desk, and he wasn’t satisfied behind a desk.”
His younger brother, Matthew, went into law enforcement, and Michael, wanting to do something that had a greater impact, did as well.
“He felt that was the best way for him to contribute to society,” said Ernie Fullerton, coordinator of the Indiana University of Pennsylvania Police Academy site at Carnegie Mellon University. “He said he loved it. It was exactly what he thought it was going to be. He felt he was contributing.”
Officer Crawshaw, 32, of Verona, was doing the job he loved Sunday night when he was gunned down while sitting in his patrol car in Penn Hills waiting for backup. Allegheny County Police announced the arrest of a suspect in the shooting yesterday morning.
The weight of the loss was evident in the voice of University of Pittsburgh police Chief Tim Delaney, who hired Officer Crawshaw for the university’s police force, where he worked from 2005 through 2007.
“Obviously, we’re devastated by this loss. He was a good kid, excellent officer and a much better person,” Chief Delaney said. “He was always smiling. That’s what a lot of us here have mentioned -- that Mike always had a smile on his face.
“His parents did an excellent job in raising him.”
The son of Linda and James Crawshaw III of Shaler, Officer Crawshaw was a 1996 graduate of Shaler Area High School, where he was a linebacker on the football team.
“He was the guy, when you passed in the hall, his smile just lit up the hallway,” said classmate Mindy Thiel, now activities director at the high school. “He was a football player, but that typical football persona wasn’t him. He was that big, cuddly teddy bear that you were so comfortable approaching and talking to. That was Mike. He was a great guy all around and someone you could count on.”
Upon graduating, Officer Crawshaw enrolled at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, where he earned a bachelor of science in social work and a minor in psychology. He worked for a while as a probation officer, but he found the job lacking.
“He was thinking of not only bettering himself but everyone around him,” said his friend, Andy Broderick of Shaler, who had met him in seventh grade. “I can’t see him as being anything else [but a policeman].”
Officer Crawshaw completed an 11-month program at IUP’s Criminal Justice Training Academy at Carnegie Mellon in February 2004 and was hired by Chief Delaney at Pitt. In 2007, he joined the Penn Hills force.
“I do remember the day he called me, the day he found out he was going to get on with Penn Hills,” said Pittsburgh police Officer Matt Zuccher, a boyhood friend who roomed with Officer Crawshaw in college. “He said, ‘I think I got it. I think I’m going to make the cut.’ He was so happy. I was so happy for him.”
His brother, Matthew, 29, has worked for the past five years with the Northern Regional Police Department, whose coverage includes Pine, Marshall, Richland and Bradford Woods. Family members knew what the brothers were risking -- especially after three Pittsburgh police officers were shot and killed in April -- but they could see how much the work meant to them.
“We had a conversation this summer about that,” said his aunt, Ms. Schwartzbauer, her voice breaking. “I was asking him about how it works. ... You get a domestic call. ... I was like, ‘You ride alone in a car?’ And he was, ‘Yeah, but we call for backup before we do anything.’”
“He never feared it,” said William Crawshaw, Officer Crawshaw’s great-uncle. “He said, ‘I’m not overly aggressive. I call for backup every time.’ ”
Last night, Penn Hills Mayor Anthony L. DeLuca released a statement saying, “The Penn Hills community has suffered a great tragedy in the loss of Officer Michael Crawshaw on Sunday night. Not only was Michael an exemplary police officer, but a good person.”
Eight days ago, Officer Crawshaw joined three generations of men in his family for their annual retreat to a hunting camp owned by the family in Venango County. It marked the 50th year that the 31/2-acre camp has been in the family, and Officer Crawshaw has been going since he was a boy.
The trips are intended for deer hunting, but William Crawshaw said they usually are more about the men having time together talking and bonding. Officer Crawshaw often brought a friend, James Harrison, a police officer in Sewickley Heights.
“Three policemen in the camp, and we get them telling stories,” Mr. Crawshaw said. “Mike’s so funny.”
This year, Mr. Crawshaw said, Officer Crawshaw failed to get a deer. So he, his father and his grandfather were planning to return to the camp this weekend.
Each Christmas Eve, the Crawshaw family -- and there’s more than 30 of them -- gather to celebrate. Officer Crawshaw, who was single, spent Thanksgivings with his mother’s side of the family, which also is very close.
“He was a good kid from a good, strong family,” Ms. Schwartzbauer said. “He was close to his mom and dad. And he’s loved.”
Survivors include his parents, his brother, and his grandparents, Elizabeth and James Crawshaw Jr. of Kennerdell, Venango County.
Visitation will be held from 3 to 8 p.m. tomorrow and Thursday at Schellhaas Funeral Home, 388 Center Ave., West View. Funeral arrangements are pending.
Copyright 2009 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette