CRIME Fugitive gives up to cops on warrants

The judge set bond at $265,000.
YOUNGSTOWN -- A 20-year-old man on probation for burglary turned himself in to answer charges that he ran from a stolen car that contained an assault rifle and shotgun and lunged at the cop who gave chase.
Warrants were issued in mid-August for Raymond Hammond, 20, of First Street, charging him with assault, receiving stolen property (the car), being a felon in possession of a weapon, possession of the drug Ecstasy, drug abuse (marijuana), two counts of improper handling of a firearm in a motor vehicle and two counts of complicity to commit felonious assault. The latter two charges are from a separate event.
The FBI and Crime Stoppers of Greater Youngstown had placed information on Hammond as a fugitive in Sunday's edition of The Vindicator.
Video arraignment
Hammond surrendered Sunday and had a video arraignment Monday in municipal court. Judge Robert A. Douglas Jr. set bond at $265,000. Hammond will be back in court Oct. 12 for a preliminary hearing.
Patrolmen Michael Cox and Richard Geraci spotted the stolen green Ford Taurus parked in the 2200 block of Selma Avenue around 1 a.m. Aug. 16. The day before, the officers answered a call in the same location that involved a drive-by shooting. An occupied Chevrolet Blazer had been shot up and a neighbor's house was hit.
As Cox and Geraci approached the Taurus, the driver and passenger ran, despite commands to stay in the car. Geraci chased the passenger and lost sight of him.
Cox chased the driver, later identified as Hammond. Police said Hammond's unidentified passenger also ran and remains at large.
As Hammond tried to jump an 8-foot fence, a piece broke off and he fell, police said. Hammond then crouched down, dropped his shoulder and lunged at Cox in an attempt to tackle him but the officer knocked Hammond away, and Hammond escaped over a fence across the street, still in the 2200 block of Selma, reports show.
What was found
Aside from a loaded 9 mm assault rifle and loaded 12-gauge shotgun, police found a lot of 9 mm ammunition, a bag of marijuana and a camera cell phone. When the phone rang, Geraci answered it and the caller asked for Raymond Hammond. It rang several more times for Hammond, police said.
The officers recognized Hammond in pictures they found stored inside the camera phone. The police index operator downtown then produced Hammond's picture from the Law Enforcement Automated Data Service imaging system.
In December 2004, Hammond was sentenced in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court for the burglary conviction. He was placed on three years' probation to be supervised by the Ohio Adult Parole Authority. The sentence included six months in jail.
Record
His municipal court record includes criminal trespassing, disorderly conduct and operating without a valid license.
In March 2004, a municipal judge placed Hammond on "intensive probation" for the criminal trespassing and ordered him to get his General Educational Development certificate and a job.
Hammond said in court Monday that he hasn't worked in more than a year. It wasn't immediately known if he obtained a GED.