Staff photo / Ed Runyan Kelly P. Wiseman, 52, of Creed Road in Milton Township, was sentenced to 6 to 7/12 years in prison Thursday for shooting a gun from his house toward a neighbor’s house, one of which “whizzed” near the head of a Milton Township police officer.

YOUNGSTOWN — Kelly P. Wiseman, 52, of Creed Road in Milton Township was sentenced to 6 to 7 1/2 years in prison Thursday for firing a gun from his property toward a neighbor’s house, one of which “whizzed” near the head of a Milton Township police officer.

He was convicted of four counts of felonious assault and single counts of improperly discharging a firearm at or into a habitation, discharge of a firearm on or near prohibited premises, tampering with evidence and misdemeanor aggravated menacing.

During the trial, which was overseen by Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Anthony Donofrio, the husband and wife neighbors testified that they called the police July 30, 2024, after an incident that day in which Wiseman threatened them. It led to officers responding to their home to make a report.

Milton Township police officer Carson Carrell and a Jackson Township police officer went to the couple’s home on North Pricetown Road east of Lake Milton. The couple reported that Wiseman had driven past their house, stopped and “screamed out the window, stating that ‘You’re the next target.'” Wiseman then drove off. The couple live on a dead-end road.

Carrell said the couple had finished filling out witness statements on the their porch, and Carrell and an officer from Jackson Township were starting to leave the porch to speak with Wiseman when the officers started hearing gunshots. The man said, “There he goes again,” Carrell said.

“The first two shots, I could tell where they were coming from. I could not tell where they were going to,” he said. “The third shot I could hear hitting the trees in the (couple’s) yard there.”

Carrell said, “As I was walking down that front stoop, I was just about to go in the car.” He said he had just been commenting to the other officer that it sounded like a .22-caliber weapon. “And that’s when that fourth shot occurred, hearing it in very close proximity to us.”

Carrell said it was “extremely close, for sure.” The other officer was “a little bit in front of me. It sounded as if it went right in between us,” and was “very close” to both officers, Carrell said.

Mahoning County Assistant Prosecutor Kyle Hilles asked Carrell if a gunshot fired toward the Hahn residence from the Wiseman home would pose a risk to people at the Hahn residence.

“Oh yeah,” Carrell answered. North Pricetown Road is between the Wiseman residence and the Hahn residence, so gunshots between the two homes would travel over the North Pricetown Road, Carrell confirmed.

While playing Carrell’s body camera video for the jurors, Carrell could be heard making the remark about the firearm he heard being a .22-caliber and then a gunshot and Carrell exclaims “Jesus! Get down, Luke.” Carrell got on his portable radio and told dispatch “Shots fired. Get some (officers) here.”

When the dispatcher responded to his call, Carrell said there was “shooting at his residence at 1210 North Pricetown Road. It whizzed over my head. Nobody’s hit.”

Carrell described what was happening during the playing of the body camera video, saying that when the fourth shot occurred, it was “in extreme proximity to us. So that is when I retreated for cover. It was very limited cover, but it was the best we had at the moment.”

Carrell said of the fourth shot: “I could hear it actually go right past us. That’s how you could see my reaction there.” Carrell said the shots were coming from the Wiseman residence.

A third officer was summoned to come to the location to assist. Carrell and the other officer went to their cruisers and got their rifles and got better “cover” from any more gunshots. Carrell called for a tactical team to come to the scene. No more shots were fired after that. Wiseman was arrested that night, and Carrell took him in his cruiser to the Mahoning County jail.

Carrell testified that he was aware that police had been called to the Hahn residence prior to that day for gunfire from the Wiseman residence. He was aware of that when he was called there July 30, 2024, Carrell said.

Also testifying at the trial was Milton Township police detective Ken Kovalchik. At the time he testified, Kovalchik had worked for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for about two months. But before that he worked as an investigator for the Milton Township Police Department.

He also served as a paratrooper in the U.S. Army for four years. While working for the U.S. Marshal’s Service, he was the lead firearms instructor for the Cleveland field office and was lead firearms instructor in the Philadelphia field office before that and was an adjunct instructor in the Detroit field office.

Kovalchik said he obtained a search warrant for the Wiseman residence to look for firearms, recording and data storage devices and surveillance video.

Kovalchik said he was aware that there had been an “ongoing dispute” between Wiseman and a few of the neighbors dating back to October 2023. There were “a number of incidents” involving firearms, he said.

Kovalchik said when he and several other officers went to Wiseman’s house to serve the search warrant, Wiseman was there. Kovalchik saw 20 to 30 bullet shell casings in the driveway. Wiseman told Kovalchik that he “shoots all the time, and he’s allowed to shoot,” Kovalchik said.

Among the weapons they found in the home was a .22-caliber long rifle. They took possession of the weapons as evidence.

Kovalchik also testified that from his experience with gunfire, there are two bullet sounds. One is a “low-key snap,” like the fireworks children throw on the ground. It is “indicative” of “breaking the sound barrier within inches of where you are standing,” Kovalchik said.

The second sound is a “whizzing or hissing or the sound of good, solid bacon frying.” He said that is “indicative” of a “bullet or projectile passing you probably within yards, within feet to yards.”