MANHUNT ENDS with shooting, arrest of fugitive

By JOE GORMAN

jgorman@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

The man who eluded a massive police manhunt in a Boardman cemetery Thursday morning after shooting at police is recuperating from a gunshot wound.

Luis Cruz Ramos, 30, was shot about 1:10 p.m. Friday by a member of the U.S. Marshals Northern Ohio Fugitive Task Force during a foot chase at Erie Street and Maywood Drive. He collapsed from his wound near the 198 Maywood Drive home.

Ramos had been sought since he drove away from a Campbell police traffic stop just after midnight Thursday, and didn’t stop until he abandoned his van on Interstate 680 south near Lake Park Cemetery in Boardman. Along the way he fired shots at a city police cruiser, striking it twice, and also fired more shots at city police officers trying to lay stop sticks in the road.

“He was a very dangerous individual,” said Peter J. Elliot, U.S. marshal for the Northern District of Ohio. Elliot said two task force members, one a trooper with the Ohio State Highway Patrol, found Ramos and gave chase on foot. Ramos pulled a gun and then was shot by the state trooper, Elliot said.

Elliot said Ramos is in stable condition. He is being guarded by police; he was handcuffed when he was wheeled away on a stretcher.

Elliot would not say why marshals were searching in that particular area for Ramos, only that they had information he was there and the neighborhood is not far from the cemetery, where he managed to dodge a search by SWAT team members. He was spotted Friday at Lowell Avenue and Rush Boulevard, which is where the foot chase began.

Richard Clark, who lives in the area, said he was working on his computer when he heard gunfire. He said he went to look and saw Ramos run until he collapsed in the yard at the Maywood Drive home.

Mary Williams, who lives across the street from the home where Ramos fell, said she heard three shots and saw Ramos run and drop.

“They [police] were hot on his trail,” Williams said.

Campbell police tried to stop Ramos on Thursday because he is wanted on a warrant out of Puerto Rico for a sexual assault on a 14-year-old with special needs. He now faces at least two charges of felonious assault in Youngstown for the shots he fired at officers during the chase, as well as other charges from other jurisdictions for the chase. Elliot said Ramos has been on the run from the charge in Puerto Rico since 2013.

A woman who said she was the ex-girlfriend of Ramos called police Tuesday from Philadelphia, saying he held her against her will in a Murray Avenue home in Campbell – and she alerted Campbell police of the rape warrant.

State troopers took over the shooting scene shortly after city police arrived when the call went out that Ramos was shot and an ambulance was needed. At least one shell casing was seen at the intersection of Maywood Drive and Erie Street.

Campbell Police Chief Drew Rauzan said he is thankful that Ramos was caught.

“Very sincere and heartfelt thank you to those Mahoning Valley Crisis Response Team members and marshals task force members who pursued this dangerous offender,” Rauzan said. “I am thankful that this ongoing situation was ended with no injuries to the general public or those police officers who laid their lives on the line to bring Ramos to justice. It’s tragic that Ramos put himself in the position where any force had to be used in his arrest by law enforcement.”

“I’m glad they got him. It turned out a lot better than it could have,” added Boardman Police Chief Jack Nichols.

His department has two officers assigned full time to the local division of the U.S. Marshals Service’s Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force, an association that Nichols said pays off in situations such as this.

“A lot of people pitched into it, and there was a lot of teamwork. We’re glad that it ended as well as it did,” he said.

Elliot credited the task force members who had been hunting for Ramos since he got away from the cemetery Thursday.

“They didn’t quit,” Elliot said. “They stayed on this guy.”

Contributors: Vindicator reporters Sarah Lehr and Jordyn Grzelewski