AKRON, Ohio — A woman was shot in an Akron bar and forced into a truck, prompting a police chase that led to cruisers blocking off lanes on I-480 westbound at Tiedeman Road on Friday afternoon, according to Akron police. The freeway is now open.
Akron police told News 5 a 38-year-old woman was shot in the leg this morning around 11 inside the North Side Saloon on East Cuyahoga Falls Avenue. The woman, according to what a witness told police, was forced into a pickup truck by the 39-year-old man who shot her.
In a statement to the media, Akron police say that patrol officers found the vehicle near Linden Avenue and East Cuyahoga Falls Avenue, where the officers activated their lights and sirens to make an investigatory stop.
The truck fled.
"If it was just a pursuit, we terminate those every day," said Deputy Chief David Laughlin of the Akron police. "About 50 percent of pursuits are terminated, but then when you have a victim in there with an injury, not sure how life-threatening it was, not sure if his intention is to do her additional harm, it becomes very stressful, very stressful for the officers, dangerous to the motoring public trying to get from point A to point B. There are some of the most dangerous things we encounter."
During the pursuit, which lasted an hour and a half, police negotiators attempted to bring the chase to a peaceful conclusion. But the driver was reckless, say police, at times driving at high speeds.
"With the assistance of other police agencies, the chase concluded on 480 West near the Southwood overpass," according to police.
The end of the chase was captured on an ODOT camera.
The man was taken into custody.
The woman was transported to a Cleveland-area hospital with non-life-threatening gunshot injuries to her leg.
Charges are pending.
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