This was submitted by KCK CopBlock, via the CopBlock.org submission page.

Date of Incident: May 31,2014
Departments: Arkansas City, KS PD – 117 W Central Ave, Arkansas City, KS 67005 Ph# (620) 441-4444 Cowley County Sheriff – 911 Fuller St. Winfield, KS Ph# (620) 221-5444
Officer Involved: Deputy Steve Deill
Victim: Tayler Rock
Facebook Support Page:Justice for Tayler

“A Family’s Tragedy Unveiled”

From the family of Tayler Rock

This is Tayler:
Tayler was a good kid. He loved his daughters, mom, brothers, friends, and music. He was athletic, intelligent, respectful, and a person who stood up for what he believed in. The high school star athlete and homecoming king. Tayler never had a problem with area law enforcement until he began dating, had a child with, and broke up with, Ana Bedolla.

This is Ana:
Ana worked as a corrections officer with the Cowley County Sheriff’s Department until she was fired a week after Tayler’s death. When Tayler decided  he could no longer be with Ana as a couple she began to withhold their daughter, Aubren, from him. Weeks and months would sometimes pass before he was able to see his daughter. This was Tayler’s greatest frustration. When Ana brought their daughter over for Tayler to “babysit” because she couldn’t find a sitter Tayler told Ana that he would not return Aubren until their day in family court when issues of custody and visitation would be resolved. This infuriated Ana. She became desperate to get her daughter back. Her attorney told her that until the court date Tayler had as much right to the child as she did and there was nothing, legally they could do to force Tayler to return the child. Whether, at the advice of her attorney or just something that she came up with on her own is unknown, but she did come with a plan to get her child back. Faced with the prospect of not having Aubren until the court date, Ana spoke to the mother of Tayler’s eldest child, Shea Casurole, who with Tayler’s eldest daughter, lived in Coffeyville, Ks. Since Ana and Tayler’s breakup Ana and Shea had become fast friends.

This is Shea:
Shea, also bitter about her breakup with Tayler had, until the time of his death, prevented Tayler from seeing their child, Sage, for almost a year. On the day of his murder (or the day before, it is not clear), prompted by Ana who knew Tayler’s license was suspended because she worked at the Sheriff’s Department, and had access his to records, called Tayler out of the blue telling him he could come to Coffeyville to see his daughter and asked him to bring Aubren. After not being allowed to see his daughter for such a long time Tayler jumped at the chance, as they knew he would.

The morning of May 31, 2014 Tayler went four-wheeling with a friend, returned home, bathed his daughter, packed the baby bag, and went by his Mother’s house before leaving for Coffeyville. His mother, Jacqueline Parke, remembers how happy he was to be seeing Sage after such a long absence. Tayler, with Aubren in tow, headed to Coffeyville and spent the day there with his daughters. While he was in Coffeyville, Ana got on the phone with the Coffeyville PD to tell them that Tayler Rock was in town and driving on a suspended license with the hopes that he would be arrested. Coffeyville police told her they would only issue a citation. She then got on the phone to her friend and so-called “protector” and co-worker, Deputy Steve Deill, also of the Cowley Co. Sheriff’s Department. Deill knew Tayler and he also knew of Ana and Tayler’s stormy relationship. He had, previous to the murder, picked Ana up for work on occasion. He was also present when Tayler and Ana, who had been living together, broke up and Tayler had to go to her house to retrieve his belongings accompanied by his mother. It appears that he was also present when area law enforcement executed a search warrant on the residence that Tayler shared with his father, Regan Rock. Tayler, a lifelong resident of Ark City, had no record of any criminal activity, only traffic violations.

He was baffled as to why law enforcement would execute a warrant on his house. He felt that the search warrant along with the harassment he suffered by area law enforcement in the months leading up to his death was because of his relationship with Ana Bedolla and at her behest. He stated to many of his friends and family that he thought the Sheriff’s Department was going to kill him. Ana had told Tayler, in the heat of an argument about their daughter, that she would have a deputy shoot him and as it turned out that is exactly what happened as her friend, co-worker, “protector”, and occasional ride to work, Steve Deill, is the one who pulled Tayler over on a tip from Ana who had been told by Shea Casurole that Tayler was headed back home to Ark City where he subsequently shot Tayler five times while he sat in his car with his ten month old daughter in the backseat.

This is Deputy Steve Deill:
Deill got the call from Ana that Tayler was heading back to Ark City and, while on duty at the time, drove out to W US- 166 which is the only road from Coffeyville to Ark City. There he waited for Tayler. When he saw the young man he pulled him over at what is described as “the most unobservant spot” on that road.

In the synopsis of the final police report which took the KBI nearly four months to complete, Deill alleges that there was conversation between Tayler and himself when he approached the car. He also states that as he approached the car Tayler had his entire torso out of the car with arms extended. At a point which remains unclear in the report, Tayler (Deill alleges), put the window up and refused the deputy entrance into his vehicle as well as refusing to get out of the car. The police report states there was more conversation between the two. Deill alleges that Tayler lets the window down 4-6 inches and the deputy was somehow able to reach his arm in, unlock the car door on the second attempt, and open it. In the report the Deill states that the car was still running and in gear, yet he was able to enter the vehicle and a struggle ensued. Deill said that he was on top of Tayler while Tayler remained sitting in the car, engine still running, the vehicle still in gear, and proceeded to use his nightstick in an effort to “gain compliance from Tayler to get out the car”.

The first question is this:
Who would try to remove a person from the driver’s seat of a car that was in gear WITH A BABY IN THE BACKSEAT?  Yet in the report Deill says that was exactly what he was trying to do. Deill then alleges that Tayler, in the midst of a great altercation that is transpiring between the two, accelerated the car forward then stopped. The deputy states he then dropped the baton, grabbed his sidearm (bear in mind, the deputy claims he is inside the car with Tayler). Deill goes on to say he tells him, “Tayler, don’t make me shoot you”. Tayler, according to Deill, grabbed his wrist, and although Deill was on his feet, is much heavier and taller than Tayler (at least 100 lbs heavier- approximately 6′ 7″, Tayler being 6′ 3″), Deill states that he was not able to break free from Tayler’s hold on his wrist and Tayler responded by accelerating the car. He claims at that point he felt Tayler was going to “kill him”, and he shot until Tayler let go (5 times-2 of the shots mortal wounds). The car traveled into a ditch, the deputy with it. Deill’s account states that as the car traveled down into the ditch he was able to break free. He said he came out of the ditch, went to his patrol car, and radio’s “Shots fired”. The time frame all of this, allegedly happened from the radio of the stop to shots fired was three minutes. That sounds unbelievable, right? Because it didn’t happen in the way Deill claims. All five shell casings, police baton, and flashlight, were found in the vehicle

There were some witnesses who happened along during this incident (according to the report)who stopped to observe. What these witnesses, who have never been named, recount is coming along a stopped car on the side of the road with a deputy “leaning inside a STOPPED vehicle”. The witnesses saw “the car accelerate into a ditch with the deputy still leaning in. The car was traveling fast, went down into the ditch, through a fence, and into a field. The only sight was of the deputy when the car went into the ditch. Both witnesses saw the deputy limp to his car, drive a short distance ahead, and then climb over the fence to go to the car in the field.”

What the witnesses did not describe in the report is any type of altercation occurring between Tayler and Deill and they did not hear ANY gunshots. None. In fact, they did not mention seeing Tayler, only Deill leaning in a stopped car, the car accelerating into the ditch, and the deputy limping out of the ditch and going toward his car. If events played out as the deputy’s account in the report claims, why did these witnesses see nor hear any of it? They were clearly present when the deputy says the shooting took place. They came along when the car was stopped. It wasn’t moving. They saw the car with the deputy inside of it go into the ditch. Why didn’t they see or hear gunshots (the one thing a person would remember of such a scene) or the alleged altercation? That’s when Deill says he fired. They didn’t see it because that is not the way it happened. What the witnesses saw was Deill attempting to stage the scene. Deill had already shot Tayler.

Why Deill murdered Tayler I do not know. Was he trying to impress Ana or score points with her by eliminating her problem (remember, his presence when Tayler showed up to pick up his things from Ana’s house, at the execution of the search warrant, and to pick Ana up for work)? He’s not the greatest looking guy, and she is attractive. She has called him a ” friend of the family” and “a friend I met through work”. Did Deill hope for more with Ana? Did the pretty girl string the unimpressive man along? Was she part of the murder (she did tell Tayler that she would have a deputy shoot him, and for some reason he believed her) or was her plan just for Tayler to be stopped, arrested, the baby returned to her, then Deill, actof his own accord in choosing to murder Taylor? Another component to this is that for months leading up to that night, Tayler felt he was being harassed by area law enforcement. Being the type of person that he was, when Tayler felt that he was being harassed he began to research online examples of police misconduct and post those accounts along with his not-so-kind about remarks about the wrong actions of police on Facebook and Instagram.
The community of Ark City is a small, mainly rural, community. Tayler, as well as not making any friends with area law enforcement because of he and Ana’s relationship, more than likely, did not endear himself to area law enforcement because of his incessant posting of police misconduct on social media sites. The press has tried to portray Tayler as some “unhinged, mad-dog, crazed” person. He was not. This guy was cool, handsome, intelligent, kind, and because he was no criminal, area law enforcement could never charge him with anything more substantial than traffic violations. They tried raiding his home in an effort to find something and found only a few stems from a cannabis plant and a roach. During the raid Tayler was arrested but released immediately.

What is particularly troubling about this case is that Deill knew Tayler, knew his background, knew where he lived, knew he was not a criminal and still chose to murder him in cold blood. Something else that is troubling is how law enforcement, when one of “their own” is in the wrong goes to great lengths to protect each other. They will lie. They will tamper with evidence. They will sit on evidence, as they are still doing in Tayler’s case. They will throw up every roadblock to ensure the truth doesn’t come out. They will denigrate someone’s good name to help bolster their lies. They were about to pass this off as a routine traffic stop gone wrong but a a day later the truth of what happened was out, ironically, thanks to Ana Bedolla’s visit to the family a couple days after Tayler’s death. There WAS someone who was unhinged at the scene, but it was not Tayler.

Chris Smith, Cowley County Prosecutor, after a four month investigation that the family was told would take six to eight weeks, brought the family in to read the findings of their report but refused to answer any questions about the case. In the media reading of the report he, again chose not to answer any questions. In his reading, Smith said nothing about the danger his officer had put the baby in by, first trying to remove Tayler from a car he knew was in gear and then by shooting five shots while in the car with Tayler which is not surprising considering Smith has a history of releasing known pedophiles back into the homes in which they are committing abuse .

This is Chris Smith:
After Chris Smith read bits of the final report to the family I, Tayler’s Uncle, said, “I didn’t hear anything about the witnesses in what you just read”. He assured me that their account was in the report. I asked, “Does it explain how the sister of a witness was able to contact Ana through Facebook the day after it happened when Ana had not been named as having any connection to the case until over a week later when she was terminated from her job as a corrections officer with the Cowley County Sheriff’s department?”

At that point Smith began collecting his papers to hastily retreat. I asked, “Did the witnesses know Ana?” No answer. “Did the witnesses know Deill?” Still no answer. He continued hurriedly gathering his papers and trying to make it to the door. “Did the witnesses know Tayler?”, I asked, as they (Smith and the lead investigator was with him during our meeting)made it to the door. I told them their investigation was ridiculous and that I wondered how they slept at night. Then they were gone. In the media reading, as the reporters rose to ask questions, Smith ducked out the door without answering even one. Also present at the family reading was Dave Faletti, lead investigator for the KBI, and also a resident of the city of Winfield, KS where the Cowley County Sheriff’s Department is located. A former employee of the Cowley County Sheriff’s Department, Faletti was the person that Darren Parke, and myself had informed of what Ana Bedolla told us about the set up to get Tayler on the road. What the KBI did was take the information that Darren and myself gave them and constructed a story that accounts for the phone calls between Deill, Ana Bedolla, and Shea Casurole, as they knew we would get the phone records.

Also, complicit in the cover up of this murder committed by a sworn officer is the the Sheriff of Cowley County, Don Read.

Not only are the people named complicit in Tayler’s murder, but every sworn officer of the Ark City Police Department and Cowley County Sheriff’s Department. Karma will not be kind to any of you. “What does it profit a man(or woman) to gain the world, but lose their soul?”-Mark 8:36

A word to lead investigators and deputy Steve Deill

Did anyone of you consider what something like this does to the family of the victim? Did you consider what something like this will mean for the two girls that Tayler left behind? Will any man love them as their father does?
Did you consider the two boys who loved, and idolized their big brother when you tried to falsely portray him as some type of maniac?
Did you consider the pain of a mother who has put everything that she is into her three sons, but is now left with two and this unquenchable sadness over the one so violently and wrongfully ripped from her? I assure you, One was taking note of this crime, and from Him there is no escaping. Confess your crimes. Take your punishment…and may God have mercy on your poor souls, but only after you come clean”

– Story writtenand told by Tayler’s Uncle Patrick

Closing Report of the County Attorney in Reference to the Officer
Involved Shooting of Tayler Rand Rock

There has been no forward action on the part of the PD or the District Attorney thus far.