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Affidavit: Lordstown man pointed gun at law enforcement officers
By Ed Runyan
YOUNGSTOWN
Youngstown businessman George Rafidi awoke Wednesday afternoon to the sounds of law-enforcement officers knocking on the door to his Lordstown home and saying, “Police, search warrant.”
When Rafidi, 60, of 2941 Pleasant Valley Drive, came to the door, he had a gun and pointed it at officers on the front porch, according to an affidavit released in federal court.
“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 actually pointed the gun at officers twice before an officer fired at him, according to the affidavit.
He first pointed the gun at officers when he opened the main front door. He also pointed it at them after he opened the screen door, the affidavit says.
It is then that a Lordstown officer fired several shots, and Rafidi retreated into the house. Officers yelled commands for Rafidi to exit with hands up. A short time later, Rafidi came out and was arrested, the affidavit says.
When interviewed later at the Lordstown Police Department by officers from the state Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the U.S. Marshals Service, Rafidi said officers “scattered like crazy when I opened the door with the gun in my hand.”
Rafidi also admitted that he knew there were law-enforcement officers in front of his house.
“As he got to the door, he saw the Lordstown police cars and officers in uniform along with other officers he knew to be police,” the affidavit says.
Rafidi was arraigned in U.S. District Court here Thursday morning and is being held in the Mahoning County jail without eligibility to make bond.
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. More than one Lordstown officer was there.
Rafidi, owner of Breaden’s Market on the South Side, was charged with a federal offense relating to assaulting a federal officer, resisting a federal officer or impeding a federal officer engaged in his duties.
Mahoning County jail records indicate Rafidi was arrested on “federal offenses” and was brought to the jail at 9:10 p.m. Wednesday.
Drew Deserto, assistant chief deputy with the U.S. Marshals Service, said the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation will determine whether Rafidi also fired a weapon during the incident.
Federal officials have not disclosed the reason for the search warrant. The injured federal agent was taken to a local hospital for treatment.
The agencies that served the search warrant were the U.S. Marshals Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Department of Homeland Security, according to the affidavit.
Spokespeople with the USDA and U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio said no information is available regarding the investigation that led to the search warrant.