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The Wooster Police Department said the suspect fired ‘several rounds’ at an officer before the officer returned fire.
CLEVELAND — The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigations (BCI) is investigating after Wooster a police officer shot and injured a suspect following a traffic chase Wednesday evening, a BCI spokesperson confirmed to 3News.
According to Steve Irwin, press secretary for Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, the BCI’s Crime Scene Unit and Special Investigations Unit responded to what the BCI is calling an “officer-involved” shooting. No officers were injured, Irwin said.
The Wooster Police Department said the suspect had fired “several rounds” at an officer before the officer returned fire.
The department officers began investigating a license plate that was allegedly stolen from a vehicle on Madison Avenue. Police say a Flock Camera system later picked up the license plate on a silver Honda Pilot that was traveling in northern Wooster. Officers found the vehicle and began a “short pursuit” before the chase was called off.
Police found the Honda again and attempted a traffic stop at Geyers Chapel Road just south of Back Orrville Road. Police say the suspect left his car and fired “several rounds” at the officer before the officer shot back. The suspect then returned to the car and fled the scene. Officers did not continue to chase the suspect “due to the damage from being struck by gunfire.”
Personnel from the Ohio State Highway Patrol and Wayne County Sheriff’s Office later found the vehicle again and gave chase, leading the suspect to allegedly fire more rounds at the officers from the vehicle, Wooster police said. The Dalton Police Department and Medway Drug Enforcement Agency also joined in on the pursuit. According to Wooster police, no officers fired any shots during the second chase.
The Wooster PD said a highway patrol cruiser and a Dalton police vehicle collided with the suspect’s car on Cleveland Road at the Dix Expressway exit ramp. Police say the suspect was taken into custody and transported to a hospital. He was later airlifted to an Akron hospital with “life threatening injuries from an apparent gunshot wound,” police said.
