Toledo officer, teen trade fire; neither injured

11/23/2012
BY VANESSA McCRAY
BLADE STAFF WRITER

A Toledo police officer exchanged gunfire Thursday night with a teenage suspect who police believe was involved in a separate shooting moments before on Nicholas Street.

Neither the officer nor the suspect was hit, and no injuries were reported. Police on Thursday night arrested two teenage male suspects believed to be involved in a Nicholas Street shooting.

The Toledo Police Department received reports just before 7:30 p.m. Thursday of a person shot in the buttocks on the 500 block of Nicholas Street. Lt. Mark King said the person was taken to the University of Toledo Medical Center, the former Medical College of Ohio, for a nonlife threatening injury. His name was not released.

A nearby police car heard the shooting report, and officers saw two people walking down an alley off Nicholas Street, Mr. King said.

Officers decided to investigate the two people, and when one officer got out of the car the two suspects ran in separate directions.

One suspect was lost in the darkness and dropped or threw a gun as he jumped a fence; police later found and arrested that suspect. Mr. King said he did not know where the arrest occurred.

An officer chased the other suspect for about 60 feet. That suspect then stopped, turned around, and fired one shot at the officer, Mr. King said. The round struck a garage on the alley off Nicholas Street. The officer, whose name was not released, immediately fired one shot and did not hit the suspect, Mr. King said. The suspect started to run again, the officer lost sight of him in the darkness, and then put out a description of him.

A second police crew heard the shooter's description and saw someone running who matched it. The officer’s police car slid over wet grass and hit a fence in the yard of a house on the 500 block of Carlton Street. Mr. King said the police car hit the fence, which hit the suspect and knocked the suspect down.

Police officers found a gold-colored gun and two live rounds and one spent round underneath the suspect, Mr. King said.