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Chase reports reveal differing opinions
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Aswad Fleming
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Warren Police Chief Tim Bowers
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
A police chase started May 8 as an attempted traffic stop for loud music, but the matter quickly escalated when Aswad Fleming, 22, of Warren started to flee, nearly hitting a motorcyclist, then nearly hitting two people on a Moped.
“The motorcyclist almost flipped as the driver swerved to miss the suspect vehicle,” Sgt. Emanuel Nites wrote in a police report released Tuesday.
“The side car [attached to the motorcycle] left the ground, and as I approached East Market Street I could see the motorcycle in the opposite lanes of travel.”
The chase would end 26 minutes later, after Fleming took police from Warren and the Ohio State Highway Patrol on a high- and low-speed tour of the northern half of the city.
At one point, Fleming stopped his vehicle in the road momentarily, but then started driving again. At another point, he met up with a friend in the roadway and gave him a brown bag and cash out the car window.
At a later point, half a dozen citizen vehicles tried to pull in front of Fleming’s vehicle to get him to stop.
“Approximately two to three dozen people were yelling at the suspect and throwing various items at his vehicle,” Nites wrote in his report. “The suspect was raising his arms out his driver’s side window, pumping his fist in the air indicating he was some sort of hero.”
The chase ended when Fleming’s vehicle quit running, having long since blown out one of its tires. Police later were informed that Fleming was driving someone else’s vehicle without permission.
Fleming remains in Trumbull County Jail and is charged with multiple felonies that could land him in prison for decades.
The chase resulted in Patrolman Pat Hoolihan suffering injuries caused by a crash with a nonpolice vehicle, injuries to another driver, plus damage to several nonpolice vehicles and several police cars.
Police Chief Tim Bowers asked Lt. Thomas Skoczylas to conduct an internal-affairs investigation to determine whether Nites or other officers violated departmental policies during the chase.
The results of the internal investigation were mixed.
Skoczylas’ report said Nites should have called off the pursuit, whereas Capt. Tim Roberts, commander over the road-patrol division, said Nites was correct in chasing Fleming.
“Had the pursuit not been initiated, the danger of the suspect remaining at large for a minor offense would have been much less dangerous than the danger to the police officers and the public created by the pursuit,” Skoczylas said in his report.
By contrast, Capt. Roberts, said, “It is my belief that Sgt. Nites continued the pursuit of Mr. Fleming because he believed that [Fleming] was intentionally attempting to cause serious physical harm to an innocent victim.”
Roberts noted that Fleming nearly injured the motorcyclist and Moped riders within a “very short period of time from the initiation of this pursuit and were very alarming in nature.”
Bowers said Tuesday the difference of opinion shows how difficult it is to make decisions regarding police pursuits.
“Sgt. Nites had to make a split-second decision whether to pursue this person,” Bowers said.
The chief said he had only received the report earlier Tuesday and hadn’t decided yet whether any of his officers had violated departmental policy.