Crime hits home for OFCC Membership Coordinator

The following news account documents an incident that occurred in the neighborhood of OFCC Membership Coordinator Dan White. Commentary from White follows the story.

November 22, 2004
Lorain Morning Journal

Man arrested after foot chase with cops

Police arrested man who led officers on a foot chase about 11:30 p.m. Saturday, and six police cruisers converged in the yard of a West 17th Street residence before the suspect was apprehended, according to Patrolman Dennis
Camarillo.

Police began chasing a man through central Lorain, and two police vehicles collided in a driveway close to where the man was apprehended, according to
Camarillo, whose cruiser was involved in the accident.

The chase began around 11:10 p.m. Saturday, soon after a man with a gun was reported chasing people and shooting at them near West 20th Street, according to a police report.

Click on the "Read More..." link below for more.

The suspect, Erie Duane McDaniel, 26, of East 30th Street, Lorain, was charged with carrying a concealed weapon while under disability, carrying concealed weapons, tampering with evidence, obstructing official business and resisting
arrest, according to a police report.

He is being held in the Lorain County jail without bond and will be arraigned at 2 p.m. today in Lorain Municipal Court, according to a spokesman at the Lorain County Jail.

After McDaniel was searched, he later was seen squirming in the back of a police cruiser, where a loaded handgun was found under the seat, according to the report.

Evidence police took at the scene included a gunshot residue kit, pictures, eight 9 mm rounds, one 9 mm magazine and one high-point 9 mm semi-automatic handgun, according to the report.

Camarillo said at the scene late Saturday that the cruiser he was driving collided into to the vehicle driven by Detective Steve Curry as he was pulling
into the driveway of the West 17th Street home as Curry was exiting it.

There was minor damage done to both vehicles, and no one was injured, Camarillo said, and the accident caused the front driver's side wheel on Camarillo's cruiser to go flat.

Commentary by OFCC Membership Coordinator Dan White:
This story clearly illustrates the fact that anything can happen anywhere.

I LIVE on West 20th St., and I heard the sirens from the responding officers. I remember one of my dogs barking at the window, so this guy could very well have been walking past my house (I can't know for sure, as they haven't reported which
section of West 20th this happened on).

Fortunately, I took my dogs out AFTER the guy had already left my street. If not, I could very well have found myself in the middle of this
situation. As it was, I had just stepped out for a few minutes to let the dogs out in my backyard, in the dark, unarmed, right before bed.

Lesson learned!

You cannot afford to let your guard down. In the past few months, we've had stories of a shooting rampage in a K-Mart, armed robbery inside a local mall, attempted rape at another mall, an armed robbery in a restaurant, a knife attack in a barber shop, and now an armed assailant walking through my own neighborhood. These are all places I would have expected to be safe.

But the truth of the matter is, like for everyone else, I am responsible for my own safety. This is why I try to be prepared wherever I go (except my backyard, apparently!) and consciously avoid places that would deny me that right.

So let my lesson learned be a lesson for you: be alert, be prepared, and remember; the headlines are full of people who thought it would never happen to them.

Three other examples for the "it can happen anytime, anywhere" file...
Police look for robbery suspect
Newark (Ohio) police are looking for a man who robbed a female customer leaving the 21st Street Wal-Mart Supercenter Monday morning. A man approached the woman, grabbed her purse and dragged her across the parking lot to his vehicle, according to Newark Police Detective Steve Vanoy. He then got into his vehicle, freed the purse from the woman and sped off, Vanoy said. The woman suffered injuries in the scuffle.

Huber Heights Businesses Robbed at Gunpoint
Two men are on the run and officers say they are armed and could be dangerous. This is the second armed robbery in two nights for Huber Heights police. They say two men robbed the Kwik and Kold on Fishburg Road at gunpoint just before ten Monday night and may be behind a violent robbery the night before. Police say they forced the clerk to the back office where they took money from the register, the safe and the clerk's wallet. A police K-9 unit tracked the suspects to a nearby apartment complex, but officers believe they then got in a car headed towards Troy. No one was injured, but police say the men match the descriptions of the suspects in a Sunday night robbery at the UDF on Grant. In that robbery two men wearing masks and hooded sweatshirts robbed the clerk and hit her several times with a handgun.

Gunman in Florida shoots three, self inside Radio Shack
St. Petersburg - A customer survived a gunman's deadly rampage inside a Radio Shack store by dropping to the ground and then prayed aloud as the moans of his victims echoed around her, tapes of her call to 9-1-1 disclosed Friday. Leellette D. Rutherford was inside the store Thursday evening when Justin Cudar walked in and began firing without warning, killing a customer and a clerk and severely wounding another employee. A terrified Rutherford pleaded with the 9-1-1 operator to send help as she prayed aloud. "Please God, there are people dying here," Rutherford, 55, told the operator. "There's blood all over the place."