Police sergeant shot while trying to stop theft at home

A former Youngstown Pride player is accused of trying to kill the officer.
By NANCY TULLIS
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
LIBERTY -- A township police sergeant was shot while trying to stop a crime at his home on Crestwood Boulevard, a neighbor of the police officer's said.
Sgt. Robert Greaf, a 20-year veteran of the township police department, was in stable condition Saturday night in St. Elizabeth Health Center in Youngstown with a gunshot wound to his left forearm, a hospital clinical manager said.
The police report said Greaf was shot while responding to a break-in of a vehicle on Crestwood Boulevard around 6 a.m. Saturday, and that he chased a man through backyards on Crestwood.
A neighbor, Dennis Roller of Crestwood Boulevard, said Greaf was trying to stop a man who broke into a family vehicle parked in Greaf's driveway.
Police said that when Greaf caught the man, there was a struggle and Greaf was shot in the forearm. The man escaped, but was caught several hours later on nearby Burning Tree Lane, according to the police report.
Suspect
Garry Robbins, 43, of Norwood Avenue, Youngstown, is in Trumbull County Jail and will be arraigned Monday in Girard Municipal Court on several charges, including attempted murder, breaking and entering, resisting arrest, criminal trespass and obstructing official business.
According to Vindicator files, Robbins was a member of the Youngstown Pride professional basketball team in the late 1980s. He also was a member of the Youngstown State University Penguins basketball team from 1984-86 and led the Penguins in scoring in 1986.
Robbins suffered four gunshot wounds in February at a Martin Luther King Boulevard apartment. A police report indicated that he was shot in both legs, right arm and right side.
Robbins said he knew the man who shot him only by a first name and didn't know why he was shot. He went to visit a woman who lived in the apartment and the man came in, told the woman to leave, then shot him, Robbins told police.
A Vindicator report in August 1996 said Robbins' arrest at his home on felonious assault and criminal damaging charges was the 1,000th for the Mahoning Valley Violent Crimes Task Force. The charges were later amended to assault, and another charge of criminal trespass was dismissed. He was sentenced to six months in jail and placed in a drug rehabilitation program.
Greaf received a commendation for outstanding police work at a Liberty Township trustee meeting in 2001 for a timely homicide investigation, according to Vindicator files.