Gary E. Oancea (1958-2021)
Apr. 10—Gary E. Oancea, who followed his law-enforcement father to become a police officer with several northwest Ohio departments and was honored for valor after defusing an armed standoff, died April 1 in his Auburn, Ind., home. He was 62.
He had a heart attack, said son Gary Oancea, Jr. The senior Mr. Oancea, formerly of Sylvania Township, moved to Indiana about two years ago.
He began to have health problems in the early 2000s, ex-wife Denise Oancea said. He last was with the Pioneer, Ohio, police department, where he was a detective.
"I can hear him saying this. He felt their job was to protect and serve, that they were public servants," Ms. Oancea said. "He grew up around it and valued the service piece of it and what police officers do for the community."
His son recalled hearing even from some Mr. Oancea had arrested, who told him, "'I wasn't happy at the time, but he saved my life.'
Mr. Oancea's dad, Nicholas, retired as Berkey police chief and earlier had been chief of departments in Sylvania Township and Woodville and a patrol officer in Sylvania.
He received his training at the former Criminal Justice Training and Education Center and had a degree in criminal justice from the University of Toledo. He later taught at the police academy and at UT.
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Mr. Oancea was a security officer at the Medical College of Ohio and worked briefly as a Berkey officer before he was hired to the Sylvania police force in the early 1980s.
He had a stint as police chief in Metamora, Ohio, and was a ranger for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, assigned to Mary Jane Thurston State Park near Grand Rapids.
With the Ada, Ohio, police department, he trained new officers in tactical approaches. In October, 1991, he was dispatched to help a state parole officer arrest a parole violator who had been taking drugs and drinking. In the man's house, the two officers found the parole violator had backed into a bedroom, loaded a full magazine into a pistol, pulled back the hammer, and stood in wait.
As Mr. Oancea began yelling, the man came out and blocked the stairs, effectively blocking the officer. Less than two yards apart, they stared at each other with fingers on triggers. A wax portrait of Satan was prominent in the incense-filled room, and the man chanted and vowed to fire.
"I knew it was him or me, and we just held our guns on each other, wondering who was going to go first," Mr. Oancea told The Blade in 1992.
With one jump, Mr. Oancea slammed the door into the man, wrestled him to the floor, and kicked the pistol toward the parole officer. The man was arrested and later returned to prison for his parole violation.
Mr. Oancea was awarded the Ada police medal of valor in 1992.
"Instead of blasting away, [Officer Oancea] talked his way in and out of the situation without a scratch," then-Ada police Chief Wayne Seely told The Blade afterward.
In the 1990s, Mr. Oancea worked part time for a driving school and in 1993 started his own Toledo Driving School, on Central Avenue. He sold the business several years later.
Born Sept. 15, 1958, to Edna and Nicholas Oancea, he was a graduate of Sylvania Southview High School. He was skilled at skeet-shooting competition, gaining experience in his youth at Sylvania-Medusa Gun Club, of which his father was an officer.
Surviving are his sons, Gary, Jr., and Grant Oancea and Troy Diller, and sisters, Anne Marie Wagel and Linn Grube.
The family will receive guests from 2-7 p.m. Saturday at Reeb Funeral Home, Sylvania, where memorial services will begin at 7 p.m. Saturday. The family suggests tributes to the Fraternal Order of Police.
