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Ohio man arrested after hitting ambulance with hatchet

The man walked toward medics with the hatchet, then threw the hatchet at the ambulance, police said

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Adam Ferrise
cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Cleveland police officers shot a man early Friday after a series of events that included him hitting an ambulance with a hatchet and lunging at an officer, police said.

The man remains hospitalized at MetroHealth following the shooting, which happened about 12:30 a.m. on a bridge on West 106th Street in the city’s West Boulevard neighborhood, police said. The names of the 30-year-old man shot by police and the officers have not been released.

The incident began when the man walked up to an EMS crew on West 117th Street and Lorain Avenue. The man hit the ambulance with a hatchet. No one was inside the ambulance at the time.

The man walked toward medics with the hatchet, then threw the hatchet at the ambulance, police said.

The man picked up the hatchet and “continued acting irrationally,” police said. He struck the ground and nearby wires several times.

Officers arrived and tried to get the man to drop the hatchet. He walked away, and four officers followed him for about three-quarters of a mile, police said. The officers tried using de-escalation techniques, but the man didn’t respond to them, police said.

At the bridge, a police sergeant shot the man with a beanbag shotgun. It’s unknown why the officer fired the beanbag round at the man. Two officers used tasers on the man, but that had no effect, police said.

The man lunged at the sergeant with the hatchet, and an officer shot the man three times, police said. An ambulance took him to MetroHealth, where he remained hospitalized about 8 a.m. Friday, police said.

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