UPDATE: Youngstown businessman Rafidi held on federal offense

YOUNGSTOWN

Youngstown businessman George Rafidi awoke to the sounds of law enforcement officers knocking on the door to his Lordstown home and saying “police. Search warrant.”

When Rafidi, 60, came to the door, he had a gun in his hand and pointed it at officers on the front porch,” according to an affidavit released in federal court this morning.

“Several shots were fired at Rafidi, who retreated into the home,” the document says. Rafidi was not hit, but a federal agent who was closest to the front door, jumped off the porch, over the railing and into the flower bed below, injuring his shoulder.

Rafidi, when interviewed later, said officers “scattered like crazy when I opened the door with the gun in my hand.”

Rafidi was arraigned in U.S. District Court here and is being held in the Mahoning County jail without eligibility to make bond.

Earlier Thursday, the U.S. Marshal’s Service confirmed that Rafidi, 60, of 2941 Pleasant Valley Drive in Lordstown, was the man arrested Wednesday at Rafidi’s home.

An Ohio Attorney General’s Office spokesperson said Wednesday that a Lordstown police officer fired at least one time while he was assisting federal agents who were there to execute a search warrant at about 1 p.m.

Rafidi, owner of Breaden’s Market on the South Side in 2012 when he was last in the news, was charged with a federal offense relating to assaulting a federal officer or interfering with a federal officer engaged in his duties, said Drew Deserto, assistant chief deputy with the U.S. Marshal’s Service.

Mahoning County jail records indicate Rafidi was arrested on “federal offenses” and was brought to the jail at 9:10 p.m. Wednesday.

Deserto said the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation will determine whether Rafidi also fired a weapon during the incident.