Warren cop threatened with machete

WARREN — A city police officer was threatened with a machete and another one was elbowed in the face in separate episodes over the weekend, resulting in felony charges against two men.

Patrolman Brian Cononico responded to a neighborhood disturbance on Washington Street just after midnight Sunday when he was confronted by a man who walked toward him with the large knife over his head while yelling at the officer.

Cononico drew his service weapon on the man, later identified as Jeffrey A. Ritter, 47, of 405 Washington St. N.W., and Ritter went to the ground without further incident.

Cononico said the encounter occurred just after he heard voices from upstairs calling a woman downstairs names. When Cononico went upstairs, “I asked what was going on and the group of people just looked at me for a second before [Ritter] grabbed a large machete and started towards me,” Cononico wrote in his report.

Read more in Tuesday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com