NEW RUSSIA TOWNSHIP, Ohio — The United States Marshals Service Northern Ohio Fugitive Task Force found and arrested a man who allegedly assaulted two Sheffield Village police officers over the weekend and evaded the Marshals Thursday morning, according to the Elyria Police Department.
Elyria Police said that James D. Meadows, 37, was arrested Thursday night at the 500 block of Bell Avenue in Elyria. The manhunt has concluded, and the area is now safe to travel.
A shelter-in-place order in New Russia Township was lifted, and U.S. Marshals are still looking for a man who allegedly assaulted two Sheffield Village police officers over the weekend and evaded the Marshals this morning.
A manhunt focused on a three-square-mile area of woods was called off around 2:30 p.m. while law enforcement now pursues other leads.
“There were no infrared signatures left in the area," Lorain County Sheriff Jack Hall explained. "The one last area that was a thick wooded area, southeast of our initial location of where the car went off the roadway from our fugitive suspect, that was searched on foot by approximately 50 officers.”
Lorain County Sheriff Jack Hall held a press conference at 1:15 p.m. on Thursday to update the public on the search. Watch:
According to Hall, the U.S. Marshals Violent Fugitive Task Force, acting on a tip, found the 37-year-old this morning at a gas station near Russia and Oberlin Elyria roads. They were searching for him after a warrant was issued for his alleged assault on the Sheffield Village officers.
When task force members approached him, he took off in a car, rammed several cruisers, and then led multiple agencies on a chase.
“In an attempt to escape from the parking lot of the gas station he drove at U.S. Marshals, drove at Elyria Police officers, drove at their vehicles. That’s what caused them to follow him to this location. He actually drove the vehicle off of the side of the road, so there were no pit manuevers, nothing like that, that were utilized,” Hall explained.
Meadows eventually drove his car into a field near a wooded area off Russia Road just west of State Route 58, Hall said.
The sheriff's office asked neighbors to stay inside as a precaution. There's no indication that Meadows is armed, but Hall said police consider him dangerous, which is why there was a shelter-in-place order for the nearby search area. That order has since been lifted.
Meadows, who is 5-feet-7-inches tall and weighs about 170 pounds, was last seen wearing flip-flops, a tan or brown T-shirt, and a gray beanie hat.
"He's got to be cold," said Hall during an 11 a.m. press briefing.
Manhunt in the woods Thursday afternoon
Local police, the Ohio State Highway Patrol, U.S. Marshals and U.S. Customs and Border Patrol conducted the search.
OSHP used helicopters and planes in the search, with aerial assets identifying heat signatures in the wooded area, which officers and K-9s are investigated on foot, Hall said.
After several hours, the sheriff said no one was found within the perimeter.
At least three dozen officers took part in the search. Hall said that the three-square mile area that is the focus of the search contains streams, paths and thick woods.
Police also searched nearby homes and outbuildings, which they cleared.
“We take this very serious. When someone runs from us, we don’t appreciate it - especially when they put our officers and law enforcement and community at risk,” said U.S. Marshals Chief Deputy Brian Fitzgibbon.
