43
Suspect sought in New Middletown manhunt determined to not have been involved
By Joe Gorman
NEW MIDDLETOWN
The manhunt that disturbed the New Middletown community Thursday night and Friday and led to a two-hour delay for the Springfield Local Schools, ended late Friday afternoon when law-enforcement officials determined there was not a suspect at large.
New Middletown Police Chief Vincent D’Egido said U.S. marshals learned from the captured suspect, Brandon Bennett, 30, of Liberty, that he had lied about there being a second person involved in criminal activity with him Thursday night.
“The public can be put at ease; there was no second person,” D’Egido said. “Based on the information [Bennett] provided [Thursday] night, we had to act on it as a credible threat.”
“[The U.S. marshals] are in process of re-interviewing him, and he is recanting his story,” D’Egido said late Friday afternoon.
Officers searched for a man who Bennett identified as Carl Fisher, telling police that Fisher was armed and had helped him escape from police custody after he was arrested Thursday.
D’Egido said an officer was called about 5:10 p.m. Thursday to the Camelot Mobile Home trailer park just north of state Route 170 on a complaint of intoxicated people shooting off fireworks. As the officer was talking to Bennett, Bennett suddenly ran. He was caught a short time later, handcuffed and put in the back of a police car.
The chief said Bennett was handcuffed with his hands behind his back. He somehow wiggled his way into a position where he could move the handcuffs to the front of his body.
D’Edigo said Bennett somehow was able to climb out of a partition in the back seat of the car and jump out the window and run away into a truck that Bennett claimed Fisher had stolen. With his hands now in front of him, he was able to drive the vehicle. Police found the truck and chased it until it crashed in a drainage ditch on state Route 170.
Bennett ran away on foot and was caught a short time later.
Officers from nine departments and a helicopter from the Ohio State Highway Patrol were brought in to help find Fisher.
Springfield schools delayed the start of school for two hours this morning because of darkness in the area when school starts, D’Egido said. The chief said Fisher is a criminal acquaintance of Bennett who lives in the area, but police do not believe he was involved.
Charges were filed against Bennett on Friday in Struthers Municipal Court, where a judge set bond at $153,000. D’Egido said additional charges of obstructing justice and filing a false police report will be filed. Bennett is in the Mahoning County jail pending a hearing Friday in Struthers court, D’Egido said.