Friday, June 22, 2012
BOARDMAN
Township police arrested three people after a five-hour standoff Thursday, including a woman who has held police at bay before and a man connected to several bank robberies.
Police got a tip that brothers Brock Anthony Rennicker, 26, of Dover, Ohio, and Chad Ryan Rennicker, 24, of Ripley, W.Va., were at a Boardman apartment complex Wednesday, said Boardman Detective Michelle Glaros.
Both men were wanted out of Belmont County on aggravated-robbery charges stemming from a May bank robbery, according to reports.
Police arrived at 7127 Glendale Ave. about 1:30 a.m. Thursday to arrest the men, but the men and the 31-year-old female resident at the apartment, Elizabeth A. Soich, refused to come out.
The crisis-response team arrived on the scene just before 3 a.m. and used a loudspeaker to urge the trio to surrender, police said.
About 5:30 a.m., police told them that officers were preparing to fire tear gas. By 6:30 a.m. they surrendered peacefully, and all are facing felony obstruction-of-justice charges.
Brock Rennicker’s Belmont County warrant listed charges of aggravated robbery and failure to appear. Detective Doug Cruse of the Belmont County Sheriff’s Office said Brock Rennicker is accused of pointing what appeared to be a gun at a bank teller.
“To the best of my knowledge, he is out on bond for another robbery. Brock was our suspect that day. We had warrants for him a couple days later,” Cruse said.
The FBI assisted Belmont County’s investigation, he said.
Brock Rennicker was scheduled to be sentenced in early June on charges of complicity to commit robbery and complicity to commit grand theft in Guernsey County. He also has pending charges against him in Catoosa County, Georgia, Cruse added.
With multiple agencies looking for Brock Rennicker and the recent felony charge filed in Mahoning County, Cruse said he wasn’t sure when the suspect would be extradited to Belmont County.
Brock’s brother, Chad Rennicker, is facing aggravated robbery, failure to appear and probation violation charges out of Belmont County.
Soich is charged only with obstructing justice, but she is familiar to Boardman police. In November 2010, Soich refused to come out of her bathroom when officers arrived with a warrant for her arrest on charges of theft and child endangerment. Soich’s family gave authorities a key to the apartment, and police had to order her out of the bathroom, reports stated.