43
Warren patrolman gets written reprimand
By ED RUNYAN
WARREN
Patrolman Jeff Hoolihan has been given a written reprimand for violating the department’s use-of-force policy by ordering brothers age 7, 9 and 10 to the ground at gunpoint March 26 in their backyard.
Police Chief Tim Bowers announced the punishment during a press conference Thursday attended by members of the Trumbull County Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance, one of whom said she believed more severe punishment is warranted.
“You have kids who were traumatized, and if these were my kids, I wouldn’t feel this is sufficient,” Pastor Gayle Salter said.
Hoolihan was on routine patrol near the boys’ home on Sarkies Drive Northeast at about 4 p.m. when he said he noticed them “running, stumped down, trying to avoid detection.”
Hoolihan said the boys appeared to be committing a break-in, so he called for backup, got out of the cruiser, pursued them on foot and ordered them to the ground at gunpoint.
He said the boys appeared to be teenagers, but after the boys got on the ground, he realized they were younger than that and put his gun back in its holster.
“You had knowledge that a large amount of burglaries had occurred in the Northeast neighborhoods and that your shift commander had instructed all the officers to be aggressive in stopping the burglaries,” Bowers said in Hoolihan’s reprimand letter.
Hoolihan “saw three black males running in the backyards and looking into a rear window of a home. You stopped your vehicle and watched as the three suspects ran from the rear of one house to the rear of another, through the backyards,” Bowers said.
However, the chief said he agrees with Sgt. Jeff Cole, the department’s internal affairs officer, and Capt. Tim Roberts, Hoolihan’s superviser, that Hoolihan made a mistake.
“I believe that the act of pointing your weapon at these children was unreasonable under the totality of the situation,” Bowers wrote.
Bowers provided the media with a copy of the letter Hoolihan wrote to the boys and their parents May 13 in which he apologized for “trouble and anxiety” he caused them.
Bowers said Hoolihan’s apology, his lack of any previous discipline or citizen complaints during a 21-year career with the department and the requirement that progressive discipline be used worked in Hoolihan’s favor.
Service Director Doug Franklin said the boys’ parents have declined to talk to city officials about the incident other than what they said in their March 29 citizens complaint form.
Franklin added that Hoolihan has told him he’s willing to talk at a church or neighborhood meeting about the incident if that will promote better relations between him and the public.
Thomas Conley, president of the Greater Warren Youngstown Urban League, said the incident and the department’s handling of it seem to be a “continuation of the past” under the previous police chief, John Mandopoulos.
The U.S. Justice Department is still watching the department based on actions dating back to the Mandopoulos administration, Conley noted.