Staff photo / Ed Runyan ... Damian Cessna, 28, went on trial Monday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court on a felonious assault charge, accused of charging at a Boardman police officer with a knife. in his hand.

YOUNGSTOWN — Testimony in the felonious assault retrial of Damian J. Cessna began Tuesday, including that from one of four Boardman detectives assigned to the case.

Detective Greg Stepuk testified that he and another Boardman detective were assigned to investigate allegations against Cessna, now 28, who is accused of charging at Boardman police officer Evan Beil with a knife during a 1 a.m. July 13, 2021, confrontation at South Avenue and Mathews Road.

As Cessna charged, Beil fired his weapon 11 times at Cessna until Cessna collapsed forward onto the ground. Because this was an officer-involved shooting, two other Boardman detectives also were assigned to work on the case. But their role was to investigate Beil’s actions, Stepuk said.

The testimony was in the courtroom of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge Maureen Sweeney. The trial resumes this afternoon.

Stepuk said that when there is an officer-involved shooting, the Boardman Police Department follows “a much more enhanced protocol” that involves at least four detectives being assigned.

Stepuk said when he started his work on the case, he first listened to the radio traffic and call logs from the incident. Then he went to the scene.

Under questioning by Mahoning County Assistant Prosecutor Pat Fening, Stepuk explained that the Boardman Police Department typically asks the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation to conduct an independent investigation of officer-involved shootings and also uses the BCI crime lab to collect and analyze the physical evidence. That is what happened in the Cessna incident.

Stepuk said when BCI is working with Boardman police on an officer involved shooting, BCI’s investigation and the Boardman Police Department investigation are “parallel” in that “We’re looking at everything on our side. They (BCI) are the lead. They’re looking at everything on their side. We’re sharing information with one another,” he said.

Stepuk said that after he arrived at the scene, Boardman police Chief Todd Werth advised the four detectives what their role would be in the investigation.

“That’s when we located the three witnesses that were there,” Stepuk said.

One of them filmed a video shortly after the shots were fired, he noted.

Stepuk said two of the witnesses were at a nearby laundromat and had been pulling into the laundromat at the time Beil was making a traffic stop on Cessna, who was on a bicycle. The person who filmed the video “heard shots fired. And that’s when they looked over.” They saw the aftermath, Stepuk said.

Cessna went on trial last September, but the jury could not decide whether Cessna was guilty of felonious assault, so prosecutors decided to try Cessna again.

During that trial, Beil testified that he was on patrol when he saw Cessna riding a bicycle in the wrong lane of travel with no lights on the bike, and Cessna was carrying a baseball bat.

Beil said he made a traffic stop on Cessna, and Cessna asked in a profane way why he was being stopped. Beil asked Cessna to put down the baseball bat, and Cessna did, Beil said.

Beil asked Cessna to take the knife out of the sheath on Cessna’s belt and toss it away, but Cessna said he would not do that because he felt unsafe, Beil said. Beil told Cessna to get rid of the knife or Cessna would be arrested. That is when Cessna pulled the knife out of its sheath, raised the knife to shoulder level and charged at Beil, resulting in Beil shooting Cessna, Beil said.

Stepuk said one witness said she saw the interactions between Beil and Cessna.

“She saw that the officer was conversing with the bike rider, Mr. Cessna, at the time. And there was something to do with something in his hand or something like that,” Stepuk said. Cessna “kind of had a staggered walk or strange type of walk approaching the officer,” Stepuk recalled of the witness’s recollections. She said that is when she heard gunshots, Stepuk testified.

The woman said there was a “short delay for I think no more than five seconds, and then she heard a second round” of gunfire. And that is when she saw Cessna “drop,” Stepuk said.

Detectives checked the area for surveillance videos but found none that were pointed in the right direction, Stepuk said. Beil did not have a body camera or dash camera.

BCI crime scene investigators got to the scene to begin their work about 60 to 90 minutes after the incident, Stepuk said.

Under cross investigation by Mark Lavelle, Cessna’s attorney, Stepuk tried to better explain the unusual walk Cessna had when the woman saw him, saying it was like Jason from the “Friday the 13th” movies.

Lavelle pointed out to Stepuk that the woman told the jury earlier Tuesday that she “didn’t see anything” in Cessna’s hand.” Stepuk said, “At the time, she didn’t know what it was, just the staggered look, but she couldn’t tell me what was in his hand.”