EX-EMPLOYEE HELD IN FATAL SHOOTING AT GTE

Author: David Medina

A former GTE employee was being held Saturday in connection with the shooting death of the supervisor of the company's training center in Lewisville, police say.

Edward W. Coates III, 43, of Carrollton died at 9:35 p.m. from multiple gunshot wounds at Lewisville Memorial Hospital.

Coates was leaving his office shortly after 5:30 p.m. when he was shot four times with a .38-caliber gun in the company parking lot, police said.

Coates, who had worked 15 years for GTE, and the former employee were seen talking to each other before the shooting occurred, said Jerry Alford, division service and facility manager of GTE.

According to witnesses who were in the parking lot in the 2300 block of North Stemmons Freeway, the two men "were having a friendly conversation' before the shooting, Alford said.

"There are no indications that the suspect was a disgruntled ex-employee,' Alford said.

Family members said they never had heard Coates mention the former employee, Danny Paul Cervanka, 27, who was arrested on the scene without incident. He is being held in the Denton County Jail in lieu of $100,000 bond.

Cervanka, also of Carrollton, had worked several years for GTE as a telephone installer before resigning in May, said Norman Milton, Mid-Cities operation manager of GTE. Milton said Coates never had been Cervanka's supervisor.

Police said they had no motive for the shooting.

Coates was a native of Tampa, Fla., and a graduate of the University of Texas at Arlington. Services will be at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday at the Webbs Chapel Church of Christ. Burial will in at Furneaux Cemetery in Carrollton.

Survivors include his wife, Sue, and two children: Chris, 19, and Brian, 11.

Staff Writer John Sare contributed to this report.

The Dallas Morning News - Sunday, August 18, 1985
Submitted by Edward Lynn Williams

COATES
EDWARD WILLIAM
MAR. 5, 1942
AUG. 16, 1985

Hilltop Memorial Park, Carrollton, Dallas County, Texas