CANTON: Police and FBI agents arrested a Canton man Wednesday for the 2007 killing of an 87-year-old Endrow Avenue Northeast man.
Authorities arrested Chester Ray Crank, 33, at a residence in the 900 block of Prospect Avenue Southwest at about 9 a.m. on charges of aggravated murder and aggravated burglary.
Bennie Angelo, a Pearl Harbor survivor, was found dead of a gunshot wound when firefighters responded to a fire at his residence on Jan. 7, 2007.
Investigators believe the fire was intentionally set to conceal the killing.
Detectives also executed a search warrant for additional evidence Wednesday at Crank’s residence in the 2000 block of 19th Street Northeast.
The investigation is ongoing and additional charges and/or arrests may be made in the case, authorities said.
Anyone with any information on any of Canton’s unsolved homicides is asked to call the detective bureau at 330-489-3144. Anonymous tips can also be sent through Tip411. Sign up for Tip411 at www. cantonohio.gov/police.
Angelo’s death prompted a rally against violent crime in the city.
He worked at Republic Steel after graduating from McKinley and then joined the Army.
Angelo was an anti-aircraft gunner stationed in Honolulu for four years and was eating breakfast when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.
“We were standing in the chow line when a bullet hit the mess kit of the guy in front of me,” Angelo told the Akron Beacon Journal in 2001. “We thought it was maneuvers, but in a second we knew it was the real thing.”
He was discharged at the conclusion of World War II in 1945 and returned to his job at Republic Steel, retiring in 1983.
He lived in his house for nearly 50 years. His wife, Sara Ann, died in 1996. He had four children.
He had been honored on Veterans Day as a Veteran of the Year at the Westbrook Veterans Memorial just months before his death. He was a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Disabled American Veterans.