Councilman captures suspect in assault

By Ed Runyan

Dean has worked extensively with Warren’s police officers on diversity training.

WARREN — Bob Dean, who has gotten to know most of Warren’s police officers during his four years as a Warren city councilman, experienced something close to police work late Saturday when he discovered a man standing near the shed in his backyard.

Dean suspected the man might be trying to break into his shed because it was after 11:30 p.m. and there had been break-ins in the neighborhood in recent months.

So Dean, retired from the Air Force, armed himself with a revolver for which he has a concealed-carry license, and confronted the man.

He ordered the man to “Get on the ground,” but the man ran instead.

The man — later identified as Scotty L. Boling, 32, of Washington Street, Warren — made it to a fence and climbed over, but Dean made it there at about the same time, and the man gave up.

Boling went to the ground, arms and legs out spread-eagle style. Then Dean called 911 and waited for police.

While Dean waited, several things happened that made him appreciate the complexities of police work, he said.

First, Boling began to reach inside his shirt, Dean said. Dean didn’t know if Boling might be reaching for a gun, so Dean ordered him to show his hands again, which Boling did. Also, all of this was happening in complete darkness.

“The two things that really got to me later when I thought about it was I did not know if he was by himself, and I didn’t know if he had a gun,” Dean said.

Apparently Boling was concerned about Dean, too. “He kept asking me not to shoot him,” Dean said.

Three Warren police officers and two Howland officers arrived, with Howland police handling the arrest. Dean’s address on Sunnybrook Drive is in Warren, just west of North Road, which is the border between Warren and Howland.

Howland police had been looking for Boling because a girlfriend in a house on Stoneybrook Drive Southeast — on the other side of North Road — reported a few minutes earlier that Boling had pushed her into a stair banister during an argument, injuring her head.

Boling was arraigned Tuesday in Warren Municipal Court, pleading innocent to charges of assaulting the girlfriend and criminal damaging. A Howland police report says Boling may have broken his hand from punching the glass of the front door of the girlfriend’s house.

Boling’s bond was set at $5,000, and he received another court date of 10:15 a.m. Sept. 11.

Dean, councilman at large, has ridden in the cruiser with most of Warren’s police officers, logging around 4,000 hours over a three-month period a couple of years ago.

During that time, Dean, who is black, gave diversity training to officers in response to complaints about officers having poor communications skills with people in the community, especially black people, Dean said.

Dean worked as an equal opportunity specialist in the Air Force for many years before retiring in 1982 and was also security manager and diversity manager for the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority before retiring in April 2007.

runyan@vindy.com