Thursday, August 20, 2015
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
A Trumbull County grand jury has indicted Edward Kitt, 61, of Parkway Drive in Weathersfield Township on misdemeanor charges but declined to indict a Weathersfield police officer who fired shots at Kitt.
The incident happened at 9:17 p.m. March 23 on West Park Avenue, a short distance west of Waddell Park in Niles. The gunfire did not injure Kitt, but he suffered a a cut to his hand.
Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins said Wednesday the grand jury refused to indict officer Christian Thoma, who fired his service weapon at Kitt’s van.
Kitt crashed the van into the back of a Weathersfield cruiser parked along Park Avenue while Thoma and another Weathersfield officer, Sgt. Maynard Tally, were out of their vehicles on a traffic stop, Watkins said.
As Thoma finished writing a speeding citation to James Pedicini III, Thoma and Maynard “heard a vehicle hit Sgt. Tally’s SUV in the left quarter panel,” Watkins said.
Tally approached Kitt’s van and could see it was “snagged or caught on his SUV” and “heard the van’s engine rev as it attempted to disengage from the Weathersfield SUV.” Tally said he made eye contact with Kitt.
“As the vehicle broke loose, it came directly at Sgt. Tally, who was able to get out of the way just before it would have struck him. Sgt. Tally dove into a ditch, narrowly missing being hit by the van,” Watkins said.
Thoma, meanwhile, fired three shots at the van as it passed him, with Thoma later saying, “I was in fear for my life.” Thoma said it appeared that the van either had hit Tally or was “going to” hit Tally, Watkins said. Neither officer was injured.
The van proceeded a short distance west on Park Avenue and turned onto Parkway Drive, where a civilian, Kevin Elswick, stopped his vehicle and got Kitt to stop his vehicle, Watkins said.
Elswick was driving through the area just before Kitt and said he felt Tally “would have been hit” if he had not dived into the ditch, Watkins said. The Ohio State Highway Patrol investigated the incident.
Watkins said it appears that a gunshot hit the steering wheel of Kitt’s van and exited through the front windshield. There was additional damage to the van’s passenger side and two passenger-side windows and rear quarter panel, Watkins said.
Kitt’s blood-alcohol reading was 0.157, nearly twice the legal limit, Watkins said.
Kitt was indicted on charges of operating a motor vehicle impaired, failure to comply with the orders of a police officer and failure to stop after an accident.