‘Most Wanted’ effort yields 500th arrest

Kevin Barnhill, 43, of 914 Division St., is charged with four counts of robbery and one count of felonious assault.

At 8 a.m. Tuesday, the Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force set out in search of one man,  Kevin Barnhill, a Toledoan wanted in  four robberies and a felonious assault.

About 2 p.m.,  the marshals found Barnhill, 43, of 914 Division St., inside a North Toledo apartment and arrested him.

The arrest of Barnhill, who is scheduled to be arraigned today in Toledo Municipal Court, marked a milestone for the marshals and The Blade: The suspect is the 500th person arrested after being featured on a weekly "Most Wanted" page published in the newspaper.

"It's unbelievable," said U.S. Marshal Peter Elliott. "It's been an unbelievable partnership and it's made such a difference in the Toledo area. We've gone with a lot of different media organizations, but I've never seen anything with this type of success."

Joseph H. Zerbey IV, president and general manager of The Blade, said the company is "extremely pleased and excited" about the 500th arrest, which was made two years after the program started.

"It proves The Blade is read, it gets the faces of bad guys and gals out there, and the results are wonderful," he said. 

"It's put a lot of bad people where they should be and I'm particularly happy about the fact — it seems to me — it's a big aid to law enforcement and I think it goes a long way of being a safety factor for officers out there."

Mr. Hartzell said there have been "quite a few" arrests of people with murder and felonious assault warrants who were picked up after appearing in the paper.