Police to discuss probe into shooting of officer

By Ed Runyan

The officer had two cruiser accidents in just over a month.

WARREN — The Trumbull County Sheriff’s Department and Newton Township Police Department will have a press conference this morning to discuss the investigation into the shooting of Thomas Colosimo, who was working as a reserve police officer when he was shot in his bulletproof vest July 7.

Sheriff Thomas Altiere said Colosimo received a bruise in his chest from the shooting but was otherwise OK.

Colosimo, 35, of Newton Falls, was on patrol for Newton Township around 3:30 p.m. and drove down a well road off Miller-Graber Road in Newton Township when a man opened fire on him. Colosimo said he fired back twice.

Authorities searched the area, but no suspect was found in the rural section near the Ohio Turnpike and some railroad tracks. Later investigation using a police dog turned up two shell casings believed to be from Colosimo’s gun.

The sheriff’s department sent Colosimo’s vest to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation to learn more about the type of bullet that was fired into it and other information.

Altiere said earlier this week that his department was likely to have results of the vest analysis in its hands by Thursday, and that these results and other information would be released today.

Colosimo, 35, an Air Force veteran, says on a Web site that he was discharged from the military in January 2001 because of medical problems that arose after he received three anthrax vaccinations in 1998 and 1999 that led to discomfort, skin irritations and problems with his blood pressure that caused him to lose consciousness hundreds of times.

The Web site says he was awarded a 100 percent disability from Social Security and 160 percent from the Department of Veterans Affairs because of the side effects from the vaccinations.

Colosimo was involved in two crashes involving police vehicles while working for Newton Township and the West Farmington Village Police Department within a month of each other this year.

On May 12, Colosimo stopped his cruiser on railroad tracks on Miller-Graber Road to chase copper thieves. About 12 minutes later, while he was on foot, a train struck the cruiser, destroying it. He was not cited in the collision.

But he was cited for a cruiser accident that occurred while working for the West Farmington Village Police Department on June 14, in which the cruiser hit a guardrail and came to rest in a ditch on Old State Road, about four miles northwest of West Farmington, in Geauga County.

Colosimo told the Ohio State Highway Patrol he was driving to Middlefield to gas up the cruiser and swerved to avoid an oncoming car in his lane, causing him to lose control of the cruiser.

The patrol post in Chardon cited him for failure to control, which was later reduced to speeding in Chardon Municipal Court. He pleaded guilty to that offense and paid a $1 fine and $92.50 in court costs.

runyan@vindy.com