Officer wounds S. Toledo man during domestic call

Police say gunman ignored order to drop weapon

Police were called to the Airline Avenue home of Steven Hall in South Toledo late Friday for an alleged domestic dispute. The caller said a man there had a gun. Police shot Mr. Hall after he reportedly refused to drop his gun.

THE BLADE/KATIE RAUSCH
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A sign reading, ‘Danger Do Not Enter Unauthorized Person Will Be Killed’ hangs in the front window near bullet holes in the storm door at the home of Steven Hall in South Toledo. Police said Mr. Hall brandished a pistol at a pair of officers.

Toledo police shot a man who allegedly had been involved in a domestic disturbance in South Toledo Friday night, the Toledo Police Department said.

Hall

Steven Hall, 53, was shot when he brandished a pistol at officers who had been summoned to his Airline Avenue home. Police said Mr. Hall was shot once in the thigh and taken to the University of Toledo Medical Center with injuries described as nonlife-threatening.

Police were called to the Airline Avenue home of Steven Hall in South Toledo late Friday for an alleged domestic dispute. The caller said a man there had a gun. Police shot Mr. Hall after he reportedly refused to drop his gun.

Officers received a call at about 11:45 p.m. Friday from a woman at 1910 Airline Ave. who said Mr. Hall had a gun and that she needed help. Toledo officers Kevan Toney and Kellie Kenney arrived and saw Mr. Hall as they approached the house.

According to the report, the officers ordered Mr. Hall to drop the gun he carried, but instead, he walked farther into the house. When he reappeared, still with the gun in his hand, Officer Toney fired twice from the front porch into the home, police said.

Hospital officials said Saturday there was no patient by Mr. Hall's name at UTMC, the former Medical College of Ohio Hospital. Police say they expect Mr. Hall will be charged with felonious assault on a peace officer, among possible other charges, when he is released from the hospital.

Mr. Hall's relatives disputed, through social media, the police department's account of the shooting. Jennifer Hall, a daughter, posted to Facebook that the way a detective described her father's wounds seemed insincere to her.

“We know different! Don't believe everything you read!” she wrote.

Toledo police, however, said the wounds speak for themselves.

“I don't know how we would fake that,” Toledo police spokesman Sgt. Joe Heffernan said of the injury.

Attempts to contact Ms. Hall directly Saturday were unsuccessful.

By Saturday morning, Airline Avenue was quiet, with few signs of the chaos that consumed the street the night before.

A peacock — neighbors say it's owned by someone on the street and is very friendly — wandered a driveway near the shooting scene and mingled with cats.

But bullet holes visible in a door at 1910 Airline were silent evidence of the shooting. A woman who answered the door declined to comment to a reporter; she later repeatedly told a Blade photographer, “They didn't need to shoot him.”

Jessica Rieger, who lives several houses away, said she and her family were startled by two gunshots. Within seconds, she said, numerous police cars were racing down her street. She went outside to see what happened.

“You could see the body just lying in the grass,” she said.

Neighbors said Airline was filled with police cars well into the wee hours. Police did not confirm the shooting until 10 a.m. Saturday.

Sergeant Heffernan said Officer Toney was placed on paid administrative leave following the incident, a standard procedure during an officer-involved shooting. He expected the officer to return to regular duty sometime this week.

Officer Toney is the son of veteran Toledo police Sgt. Phil Toney.

The shooting was the second such incident of the year.

Thomas Bean, 43, was shot “multiple times” and killed May 23 by Toledo police Officer Tom Reinhart.

Bean was reportedly standing over a woman in the 1000 block of Page Street in North Toledo just before 1 a.m. on May 23 when Officers Reinhart and Jason Picking saw Bean with a 12-gauge shotgun pointed at the woman's face.

The officers, who were on routine patrol, stopped and told Bean to drop the weapon.

Bean instead turned the unloaded gun at the officers, drawing fire from Officer Reinhart.

Before to the May shooting, Toledo Officer Benjamin Cousino shot and killed Darrell Parnell, 19, on Sept. 28, 2012, in the 1300 block of North Michigan Street in North Toledo.

Parnell was shot once in the chest after he tried several times to take Officer Cousino's gun. Parnell had taken the officer's baton and used it to hit the officer on the head several times, and bit him too.

Both shootings were ruled justifiable.

Those shootings and Friday's all involved officers who were appointed to the department in 2011.

Staff writer Taylor Dungjen contributed to this report.

Contact Nolan Rosenkrans at: nrosenkrans@theblade.com or 419-724-6086, or on Twitter @NolanRosenkrans.