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COLD BLOODED COP KILLER
SUSPECT
MAKES U.S. MARSHALS
15 MOST WANTED LIST
 Timothy William Berner, 34, wanted in
connection with the cold blooded murder of a Detroit-area police officer,
has been added to the U.S. Marshals 15 Most Wanted list. On June 24,
Berner was featured on America’s Most Wanted.
It is alleged that on June 4, 2004, Timothy
Berner drove up to a parked patrol vehicle and fatally shot Sterling
Heights, Michigan police officer Mark Anthony Sawyers in the head as the
officer was writing a report. It is believed that Berner robbed Officer
Sawyers of his service weapon and then fled the scene. Surveillance cameras
captured Berner as he drove away in a 1994 red Chevrolet Camaro with
Michigan license plate YSR497. On June 5, the Sterling Heights Police
Department obtained a warrant charging Berner with murder.
“The Marshals and Michigan police also want
Berner in connection with a series of bank robberies,” says U.S. Marshals
Director Ben Reyna. It is believed that Officer Sawyers may have been
murdered by Berner in order to obtain a sidearm weapon to be used for
additional bank robberies. Sources indicate he was seeking a smaller, more
concealable weapon than his shotguns for continuing a series of bank
robberies into the warmer months. On two occasions this spring, bank
surveillance videos reportedly showed Berner brandishing a shotgun while
robbing the banks. The U.S. Marshals Service has obtained a federal warrant
charging Berner with Unlawful Flight to Avoid Prosecution.
A hard drinker, Berner was dishonorably
discharged from the Marines, and has worked as a nightclub bouncer in
Detroit and in the Windsor Ontario, Canada area. Berner
has also worked part-time as a professional wrestler under the name, Vic
Vengeance. He frequents strip clubs and may have shaved his head or dyed
his hair. Marshals say he is armed with a single-barrel shotgun, a pistol
grip shotgun, as well as the police-issued handgun. He is considered extremely dangerous.
He is a white male, 6’, 4” tall, 220 lbs,
with brown hair, blue eyes, with several tattoos, including “USMC” on his
left shoulder, dagger tattoos on both inner forearms, a tribal tattoo on his
left forearm, a band tattoo around his left wrist, and a dragon tattoo on
his left shoulder.
If you have information about this
individual, please call the United States
Service Communication Center at 1 (800) 336-0102. |
