2 charged with assault on police officers

By Ed Runyan

A man held a machete over his head while walking toward a police officer and yelling at him.

WARREN — A city police officer was threatened with a machete and another one was elbowed in the face in separate episodes over the weekend, resulting in felony charges against two men.

Patrolman Brian Cononico responded to a neighborhood disturbance on Washington Street just after midnight Sunday when he was confronted by a man who walked toward him with the large knife over his head while yelling at the officer.

Cononico drew his service weapon on the man, later identified as Jeffrey A. Ritter, 47, of 405 Washington St. N.W., and Ritter went to the ground without further incident.

Cononico said the encounter occurred just after he heard voices from upstairs calling a woman downstairs names. When Cononico went upstairs, “I asked what was going on and the group of people just looked at me for a second before [Ritter] grabbed a large machete and started towards me,” Cononico wrote in his report.

Ritter is charged with felonious assault, a first-degree felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison. He pleaded innocent Monday in Warren Municipal Court and remains in Trumbull County Jail in lieu of $10,000 bond.

About an hour earlier Saturday night, officers were called to Grant Street Southeast at Iddings Avenue Southeast for a disturbance. While questioning some young men in the driveway on Iddings, officers said they detected alcohol on their breath and arrested one of the men, 19, on a charge of purchase or consumption of alcohol by a minor.

But the other man, Daniel E. Wickham, 18, of Charles Avenue Southeast, ran past the officer attempting to arrest him and in the direction of Patrolman John Marks.

As Marks attempted to grab Wickham, Wickham struck Marks in the face with his elbow before the two fell into some porch stairs, a police report said. Marks eventually subdued and handcuffed Wickham after officers threatened to use a Taser on him.

Marks sustained an injury to his mouth and one finger.

Wickham pleaded innocent Monday in Warren Municipal Court to assault on a police officer, a fifth-degree felony punishable by up to one year in prison. He also pleaded innocent to misdemeanor charges of resisting arrest and purchase or consumption of alcohol by a minor. He was released on bond.

Another man, Joseph W. Woomer, 25, of Porter Street, was charged with obstructing official business, a misdemeanor, for refusing to give police a cell phone he said he was using to videotape Wickham’s arrest.

Before his arrest, Patrolman David Weber told the man he needed to have the phone as evidence, but Woomer still refused to give it to Weber, the report said.

In the police car later, Woomer said he had not actually videotaped the arrest. Woomer was also arrested on two outstanding warrants.

runyan@vindy.com