Injured Youngstown officer: ‘Shots fired. I’m hit. I’m hit in my head somewhere.’
YOUNGSTOWN — Body camera videos released by the Youngstown Police Department showed the interior of the police car where a Youngstown police officer was grazed in the head by a bullet during Friday’s shootout on the city’s South Side.
It shows the officer reacting and firing back at the car in front of the cruiser. It then shows the danger he and his fellow officer faced on Ravenwood Avenue on the South Side.
The officers were traveling west on Ravenwood near Glenwood Avenue when the episode took place. They were chasing a vehicle that they had followed from the Shell gas station on Market Street before it fled when officers tried to make a traffic stop.
The video starts with the officer in the passenger seat exclaiming “Oh, he just shot at me.”
The cruiser’s siren can be heard inside the dark passenger compartment of the cruiser as apparently both officers spoke: “Shots fired. Shots fired,” the driver of the cruiser appears to say. “I think I’m hit,” the injured officer said.
But the injured officer was still able to lift his gun to the windshield in front of him and fire multiple times through the windshield. Moments later, the injured officer tells his partner “Back out. I’m hit.” Then said, “I’m hit,” and his partner asks “You’re hit?”
The injured officer seemed to be on the police radio as he said, “Shots fired. I’m hit. I’m hit in my head somewhere.”
The video then shows the officer who was driving walking around to the passenger door of the cruiser, where the shattered passenger window is seen. Then the injured officer could be seen in the car and asking, “Where am I hit?”
The officer who was driving said “Hop out. I got you,” followed by the injured officer saying “Get me somewhere. To the (deleted) hospital. Am I dying?”
“No,” his partner replied.
More body camera video shows the the inside of the cruiser as the two travel to St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital, and the injured officer saying how much the head injury hurts, adding, “I can’t feel my (deleted) arm, bro.”
More footage shows the injured officer on a stretcher being wheeled into the hospital, where he was treated.
He is expected to be OK, police said later. The suspects of the chase and shooting have not been found or arrested.
The Youngstown Police Department’s Detective Division, Crime Scene Unit, and Patrol Division canvassed, examined and processed several scenes, and recovered evidence, the police department stated in a news release.
“We extend our appreciation to all agencies that provided assistance during this major incident,” the statement says. A sheriff’s office drone was used, and other agencies assisted in trying to locate the suspects.
The officers involved in the shooting were placed on administrative leave pursuant to departmental policy. The Youngstown Police Department Internal Affairs Division is conducting an internal investigation, the statement says.
The individuals who fled should be considered armed and dangerous, according to Youngstown police.
The department also announced Monday a reward of up to $25,000 for information leading to the arrest, prosecution and/or conviction of the individual or individuals responsible for shooting at and wounding YPD officers Friday evening.
The reward is jointly offered by the City of Youngstown, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms and the U.S. Marshals Service.
Tips and information can be called in to a number of agencies. including the Youngstown Police Department at (330) 747-7911; Crime Stoppers at (330) 746-CLUE; the ATF at (888)-ATFTIPS; or the U.S. Marshal’s Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force at (866)4WANTED. The FBI can be emailed at Tip@mvvctf.com.