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MASON — Three inseparable friends from the 2001 graduating class of Mason High School were driving around Friday night, looking for dinner, friends say. By the end of the evening, one would be dead and two would be charged with horrific crimes.

"I saw them a month ago and they were always very nice," said Emily Wollenhaupt of former classmates Matthew Hutchinson, John Brochu and Bruce Suggs Jr. "It is just a shock to me."

Hutchinson, 23, killed himself, police say, after sparking a shoot-out with West Chester Twp. police during a routine traffic stop. Brochu and Suggs are in the Butler County Jail, charged with complicity to felonious assault, failure to comply and carrying a concealed weapon.

Brochu was driving when the three were pulled over for a lane violation at Cincinnati-Dayton Road and Interstate 75. Police called for backup to search the vehicle after smelling marijuana. When one of the three refused to provide identification or get out of the car, Hutchinson opened fire, police said, and the car sped away. A police chase eventually ended with a wreck in Sharonville, two officers wounded and Hutchinson's suicide.

Friends say Hutchinson lived with his parents in the 9500 block of Swan Place and was a gun enthusiast. Brochu is a graduate of Georgia Tech and was working as an engineer at Koch Foods in Fairfield. Suggs, said his attorney Clyde Bennett II, was taking classes at Cincinnati State, preparing to transfer to the University of Cincinnati, and working at a Mason restaurant.

"I was stunned, I couldn't believe it," said the suspects' friend Scott Huston, a former Mason firefighter. "I saw their pictures on the TV and I was just taken aback. You wouldn't ever even think what they were telling about these guys could have happened. It is just surprising that Matt would do something like this. I'm sure there was definitely some illegal drugs in their systems because that is the only thing that would make them do something like this."

Hutchinson is remembered as a good kid by faculty at Mason High School, according to former football coach Gary Popovich. He was on the fringes of the football program and may have played a couple games early in high school.

"For somebody to take his own life like that, I don't think he was that type of kid. I don't know what to say," he said. "It's just a huge shock."

Teacher and National Honor Society sponsor Barb Shuba remembered all three suspects.

"Bruce is like a big teddy bear. He wouldn't hurt anyone. Out of all of them I really didn't know John at all. He was very reserved, very quiet, seemed nice," she said. "Matt was the one I talked to the most. ... He was really sweet."

Bennett and Brochu's attorney, Ray Faller, said their clients tried to reason with Hutchinson, but were swept up in events and in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Contact this reporter at (513) 696-4525 or dcallahan@coxohio.com.