Former Akron security officer confined to wheelchair dies in house fire
Akron OH April 5 2018 An Akron man who was confined to a wheelchair died following a fire at his home in the Ellet neighborhood.
Bayard Betleyoun, 66, died at 5:09 a.m. Sunday at Summa Akron City Hospital from complications from smoke inhalation, the Summit County Medical Examiner’s Office said. A dog also died in the fire at 2621 Zesiger Ave.
Akron Fire spokeswoman Lt. Sierjie Lash said Betleyoun called 911 at 12:17 a.m. Sunday to report that his smoke alarm was going off and his dog was barking but he couldn’t get out of the house.
Akron police were unable to enter the home, which was engulfed in flames, when they arrived.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
“My house is on fire. I’m in a wheelchair in the back of the house,” Betleyoun told a 911 dispatcher, his voice frantic and wavering.
“I can’t breathe,” he said after giving his address. “Hurry up.”
He told the dispatcher that the front of his house, which was filling with smoke, was on fire. He could not wheel himself out of the bedroom. He was alone in the home with his dog, he said, never again responding to the dispatcher’s questions.
Betleyoun was featured in the Akron Beacon Journal several times because of run-ins while working as a private security guard.
In September 2002, he shot and killed one of two suspects who attempted to rob him at the Arlington Plaza. Betleyoun, who was working for Summit Check Cashing at the time, had just picked up the daily cash from a nearby FirstMerit Bank.
The victim’s mother later filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Betleyoun, but he won the case.
For Betleyoun, it was the third time in an 11-year security career that the 6-foot-1, 290-pound guard thwarted a robbery with his gun.
In 1997, he was working security for Dependable Check Cashing Co. in Akron, making a deposit at a Battles Avenue FirstMerit Bank, when an armed robber grabbed him from behind, shoved something up his groin and demanded cash from a teller.
While the bandit was walking off with $2,000 in cash taken from the guard and the teller, Betleyoun followed, drawing his own pistol. When the bandit turned as if to fire, the security guard beat him to the punch and fired three shots from his .38-caliber revolver.
The robber’s gun turned out to be a toy, but Betleyoun didn’t know it. The robber was hospitalized and later indicted for robbery.
According to Akron police reports, Betleyoun was also on duty during a June 1999 robbery at the same Summit Check Cashing store and a June 2000 robbery at Dependable Check Cashing on South Hawkins Avenue.
In the 1999 case, Betleyoun had just left the store to make a morning deposit when a robber pushed him against a wall and ran off with a money bag. Betleyoun gave chase but couldn’t catch up to the fleeing suspect.
In 2000, Betleyoun and his boss were greeted in the morning by two robbers, one armed with a black Uzi automatic gun.
Betleyoun and his boss were forced inside, while the bandits fled with a cash drawer. The robbers got inside a car and appeared to have beaten Betleyoun when the security guard took out his gun and fired six shots from his .357-caliber Magnum pistol.
One round hit the car’s windshield, prompting the men to drop the loot in the parking lot and flee.
Betleyoun was preceded in death by his wife, Christina, according to his obituary. He is survived by his daughter, TaraHalley; son, Nathan; and sister, Linda Betleyoun.
Calling hours are 5-8 p.m. Thursday at Newcomer Funeral Home on North Canton Road. Services will take place 1:30 p.m. Friday at the funeral home.
Beacon Journal
