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East Side man sets himself on fire during domestic dispute
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Police Chief Robin Lees credited the actions of two veteran officers Tuesday from keeping a bad situation on the far East Side from getting worse when a man tried to fill his home with natural gas and set a fire during an argument with a woman who also lives there.
The chief said the incident highlights some of the complexities of police work, where officers are faced with fast-changing situations amid circumstances they have most likely never encountered before, even in Youngstown.
Police said the man, Ronald Magby, 56, who lives in a home in the 2900 block of Megan Circle, doused a woman there with gasoline and somehow ended up on fire himself.
Officer Mike Marciano arrived for a report of a fight between a man and a woman.
Reports said Marciano knocked on the door as his backup, Jeffrey Roberts, arrived, and Magby opened the door and the woman ran outside. Magby then ran back inside and came outside on fire, reports said.
At some point, Magby ended up trying to drive away, still on fire, before officers put the flames out and shot him with an electronic stun weapon. Lees credited the actions of the pair, who also were backed up initially by officer Michael Cox, for keeping things from getting worse.
Magby suffered burns and is being treated for injuries. The woman also was taken by ambulance to a hospital. She was not set on fire, although she did have gasoline on her. Reports said she told police that Magby held her against her will and assaulted her.
The man also severed a natural-gas line in his home, and firefighters briefly evacuated the area until they could shut the gas off. Fire investigators at the home would not say where inside the home the man lit himself on fire. The home did not appear to suffer any fire damage on the outside.
Lt. Ramon Cox, head of the department’s Family Investigative Services Unit, which investigates domestic crimes, said the situation was a fast-evolving one for the officers who responded.
“It’s a split-second decision [to act],” Cox said.
“It was a quickly evolving, rapidly changing situation,” Lees said. “You have to make split-second decisions that sometimes can affect you for the rest of your life.”
Magby is charged with kidnapping, aggravated arson and felonious assault. A police hold has been placed on him at St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital.