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Police dog drags man out of closet by seat of pants
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
They call city police officer and dog handler Jessica Shields’ dog “Hector The Protector,” but Thursday he also was a dragger.
It doesn’t rhyme, but it sums up his actions after a man who police say was armed ran away from officers and into a closet in a Jean Street home.
Hector was sent in to find Edward Morris Jr., 18, and when the dog found Morris, he dragged him out of the closet by his buttocks.
Morris was arraigned in municipal court Friday from the Mahoning County jail by Judge Elizabeth Kobly on a charge of resisting arrest. Morris pleaded not guilty, and Judge Kobly set his bond at $2,000.
Reports said officers were called to a home in the 200 block of Plum Street just before 5 p.m. Thursday, where they were told a group of juveniles was walking down the street and one of them pulled a gun and threatened someone.
While police were questioning witnesses, someone saw Morris, who reports said matched the description of the person who had a gun, and shouted, “There he is!”
Shields said in a report that she saw Morris holding a gun and then he began running through a wooded area. Reports said she and other officers lost sight of him on Wallace Street but she went back to her cruiser to get Hector to help officers track Morris.
As she was getting the dog, reports said a woman in the 700 block of Jean Street approached officers and told them a man matching Morris’ description ran into her home through her unlocked door while her two children were inside. The woman and the children were outside, and she gave police permission to search the home.
Police surrounded the home, and Shields brought Hector to the open front door and had him sit in front of it. Reports said Morris was warned the dog would come in and find him, but after waiting for two minutes with no response, Hector was sent in, reports said.
Reports said Hector found Morris in a first-floor closet and pulled him out of the closet by his buttocks. After police checked Morris to make sure he wasn’t armed, Hector was commanded to let him go, reports said. Reports said there were several replica guns in the room in which Morris was found.