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Cops in Niles kill break-in suspect
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Boggs
By Ed Runyan
NILES
Police had Daryl Boggs, 49, trapped inside the house at 1773 Old Forge Road, where Boggs apparently had committed a break-in.
A neighbor noticed Boggs walking up the driveway at 1773 Old Forge at 9:45 p.m. Monday and knew the owners were away, so she called 911, and police were there within a couple of minutes, according to a recording of the woman’s 911 call.
Officers could see Boggs through the windows of the house, and they could see that he had a gun, Police Chief Rob Hinton said Tuesday.
About 10 minutes later, Boggs, of 425 Fenton St., Niles, went out the back door into a fenced-in yard, where officers ordered him to drop his weapon.
Boggs refused, then fired his gun at officers, police said. Three officers fired back, hitting Boggs multiple times, Hinton said. Boggs was pronounced dead at St. Joseph Health Center in Warren.
Hinton said Boggs fired “at least one shot,” but no officers were injured.
Niles Police Capt. Ken Criswell said an autopsy conducted late Tuesday afternoon indicated that Boggs died from multiple gunshot wounds.
By policy, the three officers involved in the shooting will remain on administrative leave until an investigation is complete, Hinton said.
The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation came to the scene Monday night to process the physical evidence, and Hinton asked BCI Tuesday to take over the investigation. BCI’s Special Investigative Unit will handle interviews of the officers and the neighbors, Hinton said.
Early Tuesday, police released the recording of the next-door neighbor’s 911 call, in which she asked officers to check to see whether the man she saw walking up her neighbor’s driveway might have been committing a break-in.
“I was looking out the front window, and I saw him walking up the street, and then I was ready to turn around, and I saw him going up their driveway,” the woman told the 911 operator.
“I don’t think they’re home. They might be, but I’d rather be safe than sorry,” she said. She added that there had been a break-in on the street not long ago.
The woman also called the home phone at 1773 Old Forge, and nobody answered, she told the dispatcher. The woman said she saw a light “coming on in the house” and also noticed that the security light at the house had come on.
Criswell said the neighbor’s actions are how neighbors should watch out for one another.
“She did an excellent job,” Criswell said. “That’s what it takes. She knew by the lights going on and off, and she called the house and they did not answer.
“We feel bad for the family” of the dead man, but “we’re happy no police were injured,” Criswell said.
Neighbor Bob Dray heard the shots.
“There were like six or seven shots. My wife said they’re doing fireworks already,” Dray said. “I said, ‘Those aren’t fireworks. That’s a gun.’”
The house at 1773 Old Forge is not far from the back of the Village Center Plaza on U.S. Route 422.
A neighbor about three houses away from 1773 Old Forge confirmed that someone had broken into her garage March 29 through a door in the back, then pried open the door to the house but apparently ran off when the home’s alarm system sounded. Nothing was taken.
The woman said she had come home from work within four minutes of the alarm being activated. A police report says the break-in occurred at 11:18 a.m.
“Thank God my alarm went off because nobody was here. It could have saved my life,” she said, explaining that if not for the alarm, she might have gone inside to find the burglar waiting for her.
Boggs had been in the Trumbull County jail several times over the years. He was sentenced to eight months in prison after pleading guilty in December 2004 to receiving stolen property. Criswell said police knew Boggs from previous situations.