SALINEVILLE Police to probe scuffle with teen

Police said the boy asked the cop to shoot him before the two began scuffling.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
SALINEVILLE -- Police Chief Michael Abraham will determine whether his department acted properly in a Christmas Eve confrontation that resulted in a 17-year-old boy's being shot with a policeman's handgun and in the youth's cutting his own throat.
Abraham said today that he can objectively weigh the facts in a case involving one of his own officers.
The chief said he will be armed with information gathered from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation. Abraham asked the agency to gather the evidence.
The condition of the injured boy, whose identity isn't being released, was unknown this morning. He was taken to a Pittsburgh hospital.
The part-time patrolman involved in the confrontation, Dwayne Martin, is on administrative leave while the matter is being investigated.
Martin was treated at East Liverpool City Hospital after twisting his knee in the episode.
About the situation
It began when police received a call from Ramona Miller, West Main Street, who reported that her car had been taken.
Martin spotted the car coming into town and followed it in his cruiser to Miller's address at about 8 p.m. Wednesday.
In the car, police identified Miller's grandson, the 17-year-old juvenile.
Martin parked his cruiser in Miller's drive and ordered the boy to get out of the vehicle, a Pontiac Grand Am.
When the boy refused, Martin opened the door to remove him.
The boy got out of the vehicle armed with a machete and began waving it. The boy demanded that Martin shoot him, Abraham said.
Martin sprayed the boy twice with pepper spray and tried to subdue him, which triggered a scuffle.
As they wrestled, the boy removed Martin's service firearm from its holster.
The firearm discharged. Abraham wouldn't say who police think pulled the trigger.
The shot hit the boy in the finger. As the scuffle continued, the firearm went off a second time, and a bullet struck the police car's left front fender.
The two fell to the ground. The boy grasped the machete and purposely cut his own throat, Abraham said.
By then, two off-duty Salineville police officers had arrived and helped Martin subdue the boy, who was first taken to East Liverpool City Hospital and then transferred to Pittsburgh.