Ohio traffic stop goes sideways after couple takes a trucker hostage, then leads police on a 3-hour police chase, ending in gunfire and blood



Police pulled over a couple in a Dodge Caravan Wednesday morning after noticing they had been speeding through Ohio without taillights or visible registration. What might otherwise have gone down as a commonplace encounter quickly escalated into a bloody standoff.

Bodycam footage shows an officer from the London Police Department stopping the couple around 1 a.m. in Madison County, then approaching the van on the passenger's side.

"I just came from the ER," the 51-year-old female passenger told the officer, while her compatriot feigned shock about the lack of lights.

The officer indicated that "not a single light back there" was functioning, but reassured the couple they still might be able to get home since their brake lights were still operable — assuming, of course, the 54-year-old driver could provide some form of identification.

Appearing cooperative, the couple told the officer their names were Ronald and Barbara Taylor and that they were in town traveling. The driver ultimately failed to produce a driver's license, Social Security number, or temporary tags for his vehicle.

WBNS-TV reported that the suspects have since been identified as Elaine and Rodney Helman of Dayton.

As the officer walked away to check what LPD Chief Glenn Nicol indicated was false information, the driver revved his engine and veered off.

The couple made their way to a nearby BP gas station, where they bailed out of the van along with their dog and bolted in search of an alternate mode of transportation.

Police, who had given chase, pursued the suspects on foot.

As one officer came up on the suspects, he drew his taser and announced he would employ it should they fail to stand down. The male suspect allegedly drew a handgun, forcing the officer to take over behind a pickup truck.

The LPD indicated in a statement the suspect "pointed a handgun at the officer" after falling during the initial foot chase.

Nicol indicated that while the man did not ultimately shoot the officer, a live round was found at the truck stop.

LPD5 Bodycam youtu.be

The suspects managed to steal into an unlocked semi truck with no trailer but with the driver still inside, whom they reportedly took hostage.

In the semi and in the company of the unlucky truck driver, the couple blasted past the additional officers who had responded to the scene, striking a police cruiser in the process.

Taking once more to the road, the couple commenced a 2.5-hour chase.

Nicol indicated the top speeds reached in the pursuit were between 60 and 65 mph, reported the Daily Mail.

"Usually we try not to engage in such a long pursuit," said Nicol. "However with the speeds and the seriousness of crime and with the abduction taking place, we had to maintain contact with that vehicle."

The Ohio State Highway Patrol and Madison County sheriffs joined officers from the LPD in the pursuit, which ended off Interstate 70 near the Dayton International Airport just before 3:30 a.m..

Although the chase had come to an end, the standoff was only just beginning.

According to authorities, the OSHP's special response team arrived later Wednesday morning, while personnel with the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office attempted to negotiate with the suspects.

Around 7:30 a.m., the special response team in tactical gear approached the suspects in the semi "in an attempt to remove the hostage."

As the troopers approached the semi, they were reportedly shot at.

In response, the troopers returned fire, with one trooper allegedly blasting the cab over 20 times with his sidearm. Both suspects were hit in the exchange.

Fortunately, the hostage got out with only minor injuries, and no officers were reported injured in the shooting.

After the decisive firefight, troopers took the suspects into custody, both of whom were transported to the Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton. Both suspects were pronounce dead at the hospital.

Suspect killed, another seriously hurt after troopers fired shots into stolen semi during standoff youtu.be

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Judge allows father of convicted domestic abuser killed while attacking Kyle Rittenhouse to file a wrongful death lawsuit



Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted in November 2021 of all charges in the shootings that led to the deaths of a convicted domestic abuser and a pedophile as well as the maiming of of an armed leftist during the 2020 leftist riots in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Despite a jury determining that the young man had acted in self-defense, a federal judge ruled this week that the father of one of the deceased can move forward with a wrongful death suit against Rittenhouse.

What's the background?

Kenosha police officer Rusten Sheskey shot Jacob Blake Jr. in August 2020. The shooting was deemed to be justified since Blake was armed with a knife, was wanted on a sexual assault warrant, resisted arrest, and reportedly attempted to flee in a car containing someone else's kids. Sheskey was cleared to return to duty. The Department of Justice did not pursue further charges.

In the aftermath of the justified shooting, riots broke out in Kenosha, culminating in then-17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse's shooting of three rioters on Aug. 25, two of whom died of their injuries.

Anthony Huber, 26, one of the deceased, was part of the mob that descended upon Rittenhouse.

Huber attacked Rittenhouse with a skateboard and did his best to disarm him, but his best wasn't good enough. Rittenhouse, keen not to surrender his fate to the whim of the mob, fought to maintain control over his rifle. In the melee, Huber managed to catch a bullet in the chest.

Rittenhouse was later acquitted of charges pertaining to Huber's shooting.

Possible return to court

Although a jury of his peers determined Rittenhouse was in the right, two months prior to his acquittal, Rittenhouse was named in a civil lawsuit filed in the U.S. Eastern District of Wisconsin in Milwaukee by Huber's father, John Huber, reported Fox 26.

Huber's lawsuit accuses police officers of allowing for a dangerous situation that violated his son's constitutional rights and resulted in his death, reported the Associated Press. Huber's lawsuit also claims that Rittenhouse conspired with law enforcement to bring harm to the rioters.

The suit suggests that law enforcement "deputized these armed individuals, conspired with them and ratified their actions by letting them patrol the streets armed with deadly weapons to met out justice as they saw fit."

John Huber said in a statement that the police "walked away from their duties and turned over the streets of Kenosha to Kyle Rittenhouse and other armed vigilantes. If they had done their job, my son would still be alive today."

Huber is seeking an unspecified sum from city officials, police officers, and Rittenhouse.

On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman denied motions filed by Rittenhouse and the government defendants seeking to dismiss the suit.

Adelman indicated that Huber's death "could plausibly be regarded as having been proximately caused by the actions of the governmental defendants."

The judge's allowance does not equate to an opinion of any kind on the merits of the case, suggested Rittenhouse attorney Shane Martin. Rather, it simply means the suit can proceed to the next phase.

"While we respect the judge’s decision, we do not believe there is any evidence of a conspiracy and we are confident, just as a Kenosha jury found, Kyle’s actions that evening were not wrongful and were undertaken in self-defense," said Martin.

Anand Swaminathan, one of the attorneys representing the parents of Rittenhouse's dead attacker, said that the judge's decision gets the Huber family "one step closer to justice for their son's needless death."

Real family man

According to Snopes, Huber threatened his brother and grandmother with a knife, strangled and suffocated his brother, and then forced them to follow his orders.

The Washington Post reported that Huber, holding a six-inch butcher knife, had threatened to "'gut' his brother 'like a pig.'"

During the Rittenhouse trial, Corey Chirafisi, then a lawyer for the defendant, claimed that Huber had also said, "I’m going to burn the house down with all you f***ers in it."

He was charged with felonies, convicted, and then served a stint in jail in 2012.

Huber went back to prison in 2017 after violating the terms of his probation.

The violence-prone skateboarder with a history of heroin use came home from prison in 2018, but this time raged against a woman: his own sister.

Fox News Digital reported that he was convicted of domestic abuse and disorderly conduct.

It would appear that the next notable time he took out his rage on someone else proved to be his last.

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