Peaceful protesters hold signs while listening to speakers calling for racial justice outside the Mahoning County Courthouse during a May 31 rally. A diverse crowd of several hundred marched from First Presbyterian Church on Wick Avenue in Youngstown.

YOUNGSTOWN — A city man convicted of a federal ammunition offense Dec. 28 tried to turn the city’s peaceful May 31, 2020, protest over the death of George Floyd, 46, into a violent one, a police report says.

The protest was in response to Floyd’s death May 25 in police custody after a former Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck to restrain him.

Ronald T. Green, 24, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Cleveland to being a felon in possession of ammunition and will be sentenced April 19. He is in the Mahoning County jail.

Green also faces charges in Youngstown Municipal Court, accused of felony vandalism and obstructing official business, accused of throwing something through the rear window of a Youngtown police cruiser during the May 31 Youngstown protest.

Federal court documents state that Green’s federal charge stems from him possessing seven bullets June 30 despite being a convicted felon, which prevents him from possessing firearms or ammunition.

A federal court document states that Green was charged with the ammunition offense after agents with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives obtained a search warrant for Green’s home on Bruce Street in Youngstown, searched the home June 30 and found the ammunition.

VISUAL EVIDENCE

An affidavit in support of the search warrant states that Detective Sgt. George Anderson with the Youngstown Police Department informed a fellow Youngstown police officer, who is a task force officer with the ATF, of Green’s previous burglary conviction and two-year prison sentence in Texas and incriminating recent photographs on a Facebook page showing Green with a firearm.

Anderson at the time was investigating Green’s alleged involvement in the breaking of the YPD cruiser’s window during the protests, the affidavit states.

The ATF officer determined that the “Chase Green” Facebook page showed a June 9 video of Ronald Green at his home on Bruce Street holding a firearm. A photo from March 19 also showed him with a firearm. Another video posted June 13 also shows him holding a pistol, the officer stated.

A caption with a March 24 posting of a photo of Green holding a large amount of money appears to be saying Green’s handgun malfunctioned during a shooting, the ATF officer stated in the affidavit.

A spokeswoman from the U.S. Marshal’s Service said her records indicate the Northern Ohio Fugitive Task Force arrested Green without incident Nov. 17 in the 900 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Youngstown on a federal warrant for the ammunition charge and for charges related to the May 31 protest.

VANDALISM

A Youngstown police report explains why Green was charged with vandalism and obstructing official business. Youngstown police did not provide information on Green’s role in the protest at the time of the incidents.

The police report states that two detective sergeants were in the area of Wick Avenue and Commerce Street downtown the day of the protest. One of their roles was to “provide security and traffic control … to allow protestors to walk safely in the street,” the report states.

The officers were at Wick Avenue and Wood Street “waiting for the protestors to chose a direction of travel so we could block any vehicular traffic for them.

“The protestors were walking west on Wood Street and just past Choffin (Career Center), where some of those marching damaged and broke out windows there,” the report states. The report did not identify anyone specific as having broken the school windows.

“It appeared to me that the originally peaceful group was being hijacked by a few individuals who were attempting to make the protest violent,” Detective Sgt. Mohammad Awad stated in the report.

Awad said the “primary agitator” appeared to be man wearing a red hooded sweatshirt, black shorts and tan shoes later identified as Green.

Awad said he tried to communicate with the protestors to find out what direction they intended to go but got no response. They appeared to be heading south on Wick toward downtown, Awad stated. Awad and Detective Sgt. Jerry Fullmer positioned their cruiser to block traffic when Green began to yell in the officers’ direction: “(Deleted) the police. We want to go where we want to go. Don’t (deleted) listen to them.”

AGITATED

A female began to yell back at Green and others with Green to leave the protest, Awad’s report states.

She told the protestors to continue downtown because Green and the people with him “want to break things.” Green became “even more agitated and yelled that he’s in control and to stop listening to the police,” Awad stated.

Green led a few other people to head west on Wood Street to the area directly behind the officers’ cruiser.

“We attempted to drive away but could not because of the protestors in front of the vehicle,” Awad stated. “It was at that time we heard a loud noise and could feel the vehicle shake. We finally were able to move our vehicle out of harm’s way and attempted to see who specifically caused the damage,” the report states.

Another officer relayed information over the police radio that the man wearing the red hooded sweatshirt, later identified as Green, threw an object through the rear windshield of the cruiser, breaking it.

Police officers and sheriff’s deputies moved in to make an arrest when Green took off his hooded sweatshirt and blended in with the crowd. Members of the protest “began to turn against him and pointed in his direction,” Awad stated.

“When we got close enough to make an arrest, he jumped off the side of the Wick Bridge and fled on foot” and was not captured, the report states.

The majority of the Youngstown protest that day was peaceful.

OTHER CHARGES

Youngstown police charged Green in Youngstown Municipal Court June 29 with with felony vandalism and misdemeanor obstructing official business, but he never appeared in court on either charge.

Meanwhile Green had a pending traffic case in Mahoning County Area Court in Boardman at the time. He did not attend his July 9 hearing in that case and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

Green was convicted in March 2017 in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court of being a felon in possession of a firearm and improperly handling firearms in a motor vehicle.

Judge R. Scott Krichbaum sentenced Green to a year in prison on the offenses and an optional period of up to three years of probation to be imposed by the Ohio Parole Board after his release from prison.

Federal court documents state that the reason Green was not allowed to possess ammunition June 30, 2019, was that he was convicted in March 2015 in Rusk County, Texas, of burglary.

erunyan@tribtoday.com