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Liberty man challenges Hubbard Township officer: ‘I want you to shoot me’
By Ed Runyan
GIRARD
A Liberty Township man asked a police officer to shoot him, and then ran while the officer was attempting to arrest him on theft charges Saturday.
Hubbard Township police Officer Christopher Gifford had noticed Dwayne B. Sellers Jr., 24, of Roosevelt Drive acting as if he were trying to avoid being seen when Gifford passed him on Applegate Road at 6:35 p.m. Saturday.
Gifford learned that Sellers was driving a stolen car and made a traffic stop on Logangate Road with his service revolver pointed at Sellers.
The officer ordered Sellers to keep his hands in the air and face away from the officer, but Sellers lowered his hands and faced the officer, then placed one hand near his pocket, according to a police report.
“Again, I ordered him to face away from me and put his hands up where I could see them, or I would shoot,” Gifford said. “He responded with, ‘I want you to shoot me!’” Gifford said. Then Sellers ran.
Officers from Liberty and Hubbard arrived to assist in the Schultz Scrap Yard on Logangate in Liberty, where Sellers had run and was eventually arrested.
But before he was taken into custody, Sellers appeared to challenge other officers again to shoot him.
Officer Jeremy Mohorick of the Hubbard Township Police Department said he was about 60 feet from Sellers with a Liberty officer nearby, and they ordered Sellers to “freeze.”
Sellers turned and faced Mohorick “and was holding both of his hands behind his back, as if he was holding something, possibly a weapon.”
Mohorick continued to give verbal commands, “Put your hands in the air,” as Mohorick got closer, around 45 feet.
Sellers complied with the order to raise his hands “very hesitantly, even at one point slightly reaching to his waist,” Mohorick said in his police report.
Sellers finally complied with orders to get on the ground and was taken into custody.
When asked why he ran, Sellers told officer Gifford he “didn’t want to go back to prison.” He later told the officer he had “made suicidal comments to his family that morning.”
Sellers was taken to ValleyCare Trumbull Memorial Hospital for a mental-health evaluation before he was accepted at the jail four hours later.
Sellers was arraigned Monday in Girard Municipal Court on felony aggravated burglary and felony receiving stolen property. No plea was required on the felonies.
He pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor driving under suspension, resisting arrest, failure to comply with the orders of a police officer, domestic violence, assault and criminal trespassing.
Bond was set at $20,000.
A Liberty police report said Liberty officers found a victim’s wallet and cellphone and phone charger in Sellers’ pants pocket.