By Jane Prendergast
The Cincinnati Enquirer

A Cincinnati police officer was stripped of his badge and gun while investigators determine whether he sat eating in a Corryville restaurant Tuesday night instead of running out to check on a man who lay dying on the sidewalk.

Officer Michael Baxter did make an arrest that night - a patron inside Buffalo Wild Wings on Short Vine Street. The officer said the customer, University of Cincinnati freshman Andrew November, was being disorderly and hostile. November said he was trying to get Baxter to respond to the shooting.

It isn't the first time supervisors have questioned the five-year veteran's actions or response time. Baxter received a written reprimand in March for insubordination from Assistant Chief Richard Janke. Baxter had been dispatched on a run Feb. 28 at 8:27 p.m., according to the reprimand, and was asked at 8:43 p.m. by Sgt. Eric Schneider about a delay in his response.

The file did not give the nature of the run or say how long it took Baxter to get there.

In Tuesday's incident, November said he was in line to order when a man ran into the restaurant and said, "My dude just got shot." The manager started to call 911, he said, while the officer - working an off-duty detail at the restaurant, in uniform - "just sits there."

November said he ran outside, saw the body on the sidewalk and then went back in to tell the officer.

"He was in there eating," said November, a 19-year-old from Cleveland. "He was, like, 'Shut up.' I just kept going up to him, like two or three times."

The last time, November said, he asked for the officer's badge number.

"I remember the exact words because they're burned in my mind," November said. "He said, 'You'll have my badge number on your arrest report.'"

Baxter was stripped of that badge, No. 248 - and his gun - the next day. He was transferred to the Telephone Crime Reporting Unit, a common place for officers with their police powers suspended to wait for the results of internal investigations.

November was charged with disorderly conduct. The complaint Baxter filed said November started cursing and refused to leave, causing a crowd to gather.

He said he didn't curse and that the crowd gathered when Baxter took him outside the restaurant and handcuffed him.

"I just wanted the cop to do something," November said. "He would've been the first person on the scene."

November got out of jail after a friend and his girlfriend split the $120 bail. A police lieutenant called him about 3:30 a.m. Wednesday on his cell phone, he said, to talk with him about what happened. He's due in court April 30.

Lt. Anthony Carter, a police spokesman, said Thursday he could not elaborate on why Baxter was being investigated. But department records show three things:

• Baxter logged on to the restaurant detail that night at 9:29 p.m.

• He is not listed on the dispatch log as among at least seven officers who responded to the 11:08 p.m. report of a shooting.

• He called for help at 11:23 p.m. for a disorderly conduct arrest.

Baxter, 36, joined the force in January 1998. The former UPS driver graduated from Purcell Marian High School. He worked in District 4 until August. He was assigned to the 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. shift in District 3 until his transfer this week.

His performance evaluations compliment his potential and ability to write reports, but stress a lack of motivation.

"Should he ever decide to apply himself," Sgt. Bridget Bardua wrote in August, "Officer Baxter might make an excellent beat officer."

A message left for him with a co-worker at the telephone unit on Friday was not returned.

The department's rules and regulations manual, in section 2.07 under "neglect of duty," requires officers to respond when made aware of any emergency or criminal situation, either on or off duty.

The man shot outside was identified as Varion Mines, 23, of Westwood. He was one of three victims in three fatal shootings within four hours Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, the deadliest period in the city so far this year.

No arrests have been made in Mines' death. Homicide detectives still are looking for any suspects, who possibly fled in a white or silver Ford Expedition or Excursion.

E-mail jprendergast@enquirer.com