Homeowner indicted for attack with axe

10/22/2004

WAUSEON - An eastern Fulton County man who authorities said repeatedly swung at two of his neighbors with an axe while his mobile house was burning was indicted Wednesday by the Fulton County grand jury on two counts of felonious assault.

Tyrone D. Sprague, 36, of 3940 County Road 5 near Delta, Ohio, is to appear in Fulton County Common Pleas Court on Thursday.

Fulton County sheriff's deputies responded to a fire at Mr. Sprague's mobile home Sept. 28 and found two neighbors in the yard holding Mr. Sprague down, according to the deputies' report.

Mr. Sprague, deputies were told, set his mobile home on fire and came after Melvin Clark and Troy Sprague, both of 4300 County Road 5, with the axe.

After he was handcuffed and shackled in his yard, Tyrone Sprague continued yelling at Mr. Clark and Troy Sprague, saying if someone got him a gun he would kill them, according to the report.

Mr. Clark showed deputies the broken driver's side window of his pickup truck, which he said Tyrone Sprague broke with the axe that he was swinging at Mr. Clark, who ducked to avoid being hit.

Tyrone Sprague tried to hit Troy Sprague with the axe as well, according to the deputies' report.

Troy Sprague told deputies that Tyrone Sprague had set a trailer on fire about a year ago.

Tyrone Sprague was sent to Medical College of Ohio Hospitals for treatment of a hemorrhage from two blood vessels around his brain that day.

A nurse at the Corrections Center of Northwest Ohio in Stryker refused to admit him until he was seen by a doctor, according to the report.

Tyrone Sprague was being held in the regional jail last night.