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Bond set for man fired on by Youngstown cop
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Raymond Spires
YOUNGSTOWN
A 55-year-old city man who was fired on by a city police officer remains in Mahoning County Jail on $57,500 bond.
Raymond Spires of Salt Springs Road pleaded not guilty Monday in Youngstown Municipal Court to a misdemeanor animal-cruelty charge but did not plead to felony offenses of being a convicted felon in illegal possession of a weapon, felonious assault and obstructing official business.
Judge Robert A. Douglas Jr. set bond at $57,500 for the felony offenses and electronically monitored house arrest for the misdemeanor, if he posts bond on the felonies.
Spires was arrested Friday after he reportedly fired a gun at a city resident who confronted him about animal abuse. Police said when an officer went to arrest him, Spires threatened the officer, and the officer fired a warning shot at Spires’ right foot, which missed and hit the ground.
Judge Douglas also ordered a court-appointed counselor for Spires, who told the judge he was on disability from his job. Spires also was ordered not to contact the man who had confronted him about animal abuse.
Lt. Brian Butler, who heads the YPD internal-affairs division, said an investigation is ongoing and should be complete in the next few weeks.
“The officer was responding to a violent felony in progress,” Butler said. “He fired a shot and missed the suspect. We absolutely take everything into account.”
The officer is not on leave during the investigation, Butler said.
The shooting occurred about 9:20 a.m. Friday in the 400 block of Belle Vista Avenue on the West Side. Officers were on their way to the scene after a 40-year-old city man told police that Spires shot at him after he accused Spires of animal abuse.
An officer, whose name is not being released until an investigation is complete, saw Spires on a bicycle and stopped his cruiser, according to reports.
The officer was told by police dispatch that Spires’ backpack likely contained a weapon, and the officer recognized Spires as the person he met with four months earlier when Spires was accused of setting an occupied apartment complex on fire, reports state.
In the report, the officer writes that he yelled for Spires to get on the ground no fewer than 20 times and that Spires challenged the commands by talking to the officer by name. Spires came toward the officer, appearing very angry with his hands clenched, according to records.
The officer fired at Spires’ right foot, and only then did Spires get on the ground, reports state.
In the event that prompted police to search for Spires, the city man told police he was walking his dog when he heard a dog yelping in pain and confronted Spires, who reportedly was beating a white pit bull terrier.
The man told police he stopped at Spires residence a short while later after hearing the yelping again, and Spires pulled a steel handgun out of a backpack and pointed it at him. The man turned and ran, and witnesses said Spires fired a shot at the man, according to reports.
When officers searched Spires’ residence, they found a steel handgun and the dog was turned over to the dog warden.
In 2009, Spires was charged with felony domestic violence, and in 2005, he faced charges of trafficking in marijuana.