Police ID teen accused of shooting at police

11/23/2012
BLADE STAFF

Toledo police today identified Titus Crittendon, 15, as the teenager who allegedly exchanged gunfire Thursday night with a police officer and the same teenager who police believe was involved in a separate shooting moments before on Nicholas Street.

Police also identified Tyreece Richardson, 17, as the alleged victim in the earlier shooting.

The suspect was charged with two counts of felonious assault, one of them of a police officer; neither the officer nor the suspect was hit and no injuries were reported in that incident, according to police. He was taken into custody after a brief pursuit.

Tyreece Richardson was taken to the University of Toledo Medical Center, the former Medical College of Ohio Hospital, with an injury that did not appear to be life threatening, police said. His condition was not immediately available today.

Police received reports just before 7:30 p.m. Thursday of a person shot in the buttocks in the 500 block of Nicholas Street, police Lt. Mark King said.

A nearby police car heard the shooting report, and officers saw two people walking down an alley off Nicholas Street, Lieutenant 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. Lieutenant King said he did not know where the arrest occurred. That suspect's name has not yet been released.

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

Officer Russell was hired in 2010.

A second police crew heard the shooter's description and saw someone running who allegedly 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. The lieutenant 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, the lieutenant said.