CANFIELD — A heavily redacted police report reveals some details of a Beaver Township officer’s beating and how a woman was terrorized before a cadre of law enforcement agencies brought down the suspect.

The accused, Zachary R. Crespo, 35, of Norquest Boulevard, Austintown, faces a preliminary hearing this Friday in Mahoning County Court in Canfield.

The report about the attack last Friday states the officer, who was responding to a domestic dispute call at a home on Old Hickory Court, was “jumped” in the garage, and his firearm was stolen. The officer was bleeding profusely from the head.

Crespo is in Mahoning County jail on a $300,000 bond. He faces four felony charges: felonious assault of a peace officer; aggravated robbery; aggravated burglary; and violating a protection order. He also pleaded not guilty to a fourth-degree misdemeanor domestic violence charge.

The report illustrates how officers used tactical units and a friend of the suspect to help bring Crespo into custody early Saturday.

DOMESTIC CALL

The incident report was released Wednesday by the Mahoning County Prosecutor’s Office. The name of the police officer who was injured had been removed.

The report shows two officers were dispatched about 11:20 p.m. Friday to the Old Hickory Court address to investigate a verbal domestic in progress.

While responding, officers learned a woman was reporting that the man, identified as Crespo, was trying to get into the house by breaking a window.

The injured officer arrived at the address first with the second officer arriving shortly after, the report states. When the second officer arrived, he tried to contact the first officer over his radio but received no response.

The second officer walked around the house looking for a point of entry while again trying to call the first officer, again with no response.

By this time, the report states, the second officer noticed movement near the tree line west of the home and pointed a flashlight there. Crespo was seen stepping into the wooded area, trying to hide, the report states. Crespo ignored the officer’s command to stop and continued to run into the woods out of sight.

The second officer then knocked at the door to the home and learned from the woman that the first officer was “jumped” in the garage and had his firearm taken.

The injured officer was seen through the garage windows trying to get to his feet, and the second officer reported the first officer was bleeding profusely from the head.

The second officer was able to call for additional units and get the injured officer to his cruiser and eventually drove him to an ambulance that was waiting at the top of the street. The report noted that the second officer deemed the area not safe for the ambulance to come to the home.

By this time, Boardman officers had arrived and, armed with rifles, began setting a perimeter in the area. As more units arrived, including Mahoning County sheriff’s deputies, the woman and her children were evacuated.

With the help of a SWAT team after a lengthy search of the wooded area, an Ohio State Highway Patrol trooper captured Crespo near the intersection of West Pine Lake Road and Elton Road. Because he had to be subdued by a stun gun, Crespo had to be taken to the hospital.

The first officer’s duty weapon was recovered from Crespo during his arrest, the report stated.

At 12:11 a.m., the report states that Beaver Township police received a call from an Army veteran who had completed basic training with Crespo at Fort Benning. The veteran told police that Crespo had called him around midnight saying he was on the run from police and Crespo had asked the veteran to be the point of contact to the police negotiator.

The veteran told police Crespo wanted to turn himself in, but believed officers would harm him if he came out of the woods, the report states.

The report states that the veteran, Crespo and the police negotiators all were in contact when Crespo was taken into custody.

SHE PICKED HIM UP

During the early morning hours, the report states, investigators talked to the woman to reconstruct the day’s events.

The woman said Crespo had called her about 1 p.m. Monday. She stated Crespo had been staying at a hotel in Salem and had been drinking heavily. The woman agreed to pick up Crespo at a gas station at Market Street and Shields Road in Boardman and then they went to Crespo’s group home on West Chalmers Avenue in Youngstown to pick up belongings.

After taking care of some paperwork involving military income, Crespo asked to be taken to Mill Creek Park to spend time with the woman and her children. The woman said the man was “acting normal.” Crespo admitted, however, there was an active protection order warrant and they weren’t allowed to have contact.

The plan was to visit for a while at the Old Hickory Court residence and Crespo was going to spend the night at a local hotel, the woman stated in the report.

After arriving at the home about 6 p.m., the woman states they began drinking vodka and Crespo began going through her cellphone when he discovered messages between the woman and another man. Crespo became upset and at one point, the report states, got a kitchen knife and held it to his wrist.

The woman told Crespo to leave. The report states an angry Crespo walked out toward the rear yard, while she shut the overhead garage door and locked all the doors.

A short time later, the report states, the man smashed the window of the north door that leads into the attached garage and entered. After trying the door to the kitchen, Crespo then went to the back patio area where he kicked the glass to the patio door, breaking it.

As Crespo was telling the woman to call off the police, a knock on the kitchen door leading to the garage was answered by the woman who began talking with the officer. It was at this point that Crespo ran by her through the doorway into the attached garage and threw a plastic bottle of cranberry juice at the officer, knocking him down to the floor of the garage.

The officer, in a later interview, said he believed he was punched twice in the face by Crespo, who had landed on top of him, the report states.

The woman stated Crespo started punching the officer with a closed fist to the face, which the officer said caused him to black out. At this point, the woman stated Crespo began to unholster the officer’s firearm from his duty belt. The woman, who tried to pull Crespo off the officer, stated she ran back into the residence to push back her oldest child from the kitchen.

The woman then said she ran upstairs for about five minutes because “she was scared for her life.”

The second officer knocked on the front door, and she told him his partner was in the garage. After the two officers left the scene, the woman stated she cleaned up the glass and blood on the garage floor.

The report states Beaver Township officers were assisted by officers from Boardman, Poland Township, the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office and the state patrol. Pennsylvania State Police deployed a helicopter, because air units from the Ohio State HighwayPatrol, Columbus and Cleveland police were grounded. The helicopter arrived right about the time Crespo was surrendering, the report states.

Put on standby during the manhunt were Pennsylvania State Police and Cleveland FBI tactical teams, while the Ohio State Highway Patrol’s drone team helped locate possible human heat signatures north of Pine Lake Road.

COURT ACTION

Crespo was arraigned via a video link Tuesday to Judge Molly Johnson’s courtroom in Canfield.

If he makes bond, the judge set conditions for Crespo, including that he submit to electronically monitored house arrest and have no contact with the woman — who also was the victim in an earlier case involving Crespo.

“In setting defendant’s bond, the court considers all factors. … In this case, the defendant is no stranger to the court,” Johnson said, noting that he faces possible probation violation sanctions connected to two previous convictions, including up to 130 days in jail.

Johnson also is considering whether to order a blood test for Crespo, upon request of the woman, who is worried about possible sexually transmitted diseases.

The latest charge along with a failed court appearance by Crespo triggered violation of a December 2022 conviction on telephone harassment and menacing by stalking charges out of Beaver Township. Crespo also is also accused of violating probation for an earlier disorderly conduct conviction in Johnson’s court.