Man faces charge of assault on agent

The shooting victim was wanted on four warrants.

By PATRICIA MEADE

VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER

YOUNGSTOWN — Sean A. Bishop will be charged with felonious assault once he is released from the hospital after a shooting involving a fugitive task force member.

Bishop, 28, of Stewart Street, was in satisfactory condition late Wednesday at St. Elizabeth Health Center. He is expected to be charged with felonious assault on a federal agent.

Bishop was shot Tuesday afternoon in the 1400 block of Ohio Avenue on the city’s North Side by a member of the FBI/Mahoning Valley Violent Crimes Task Force.

Police said Bishop, driving a friend’s 1994 Toyota Camry, tried to run over an FBI agent. The task force, a multiagency unit that includes Youngstown police, went looking for Bishop after two felonious assault warrants were issued for him July 6.

Records show he also failed to appear for sentencing in July in an unrelated aggravated robbery case and was wanted for a probation violation in a separate gun and drug case.

FBI Special Agent John Kane, in charge of the bureau’s Boardman field office, declined to identify the task force member who shot Bishop. Kane said Wednesday the shooting will be reviewed by the FBI and Youngstown police.

Criminal background

On June 8, 2006, Bishop was placed on 18 months’ probation in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. A year before, in June 2005, he had pleaded guilty to improperly handling a firearm in a motor vehicle and possession of cocaine, both based on an arrest in Youngstown, records show.

At sentencing, Judge John Durkin ordered Bishop to complete an in-house program at Community Corrections Associations, a halfway facility on Market Street. The judge noted that a violation of the sentence would result in 18 months in prison on each count.

With Bishop’s whereabouts unknown by the Ohio Adult Parole Authority in late August, the judge issued a warrant for Bishop’s arrest.

In a separate case that originated in Campbell in December 2005, Bishop was charged in common pleas court with two counts of aggravated robbery with a firearm specification.

In January this year, Bishop pleaded guilty, and a background check was ordered. He was scheduled to be sentenced in June by Judge Maureen A. Sweeney, but that was reset to July 17 and he failed to appear. She issued a warrant for his arrest that day.

There’s no indication in court records that the robbery charges were used to violate Bishop’s probation in the gun and cocaine case.

Bishop’s criminal background also includes a conviction in common pleas court in April 1999 for possession of a dangerous ordnance and having a weapon while under disability. Judge Maureen A. Cronin sentenced him to two years in prison, suspended the time, and placed him on two years’ probation.

meade@vindy.com