DOGS AND TASERS GO WILD IN CHASE 2010
The chase started in Alliance. Police there say an officer was tipped off by an employee of a local Circle K that a man who had just left the store appeared to be intoxicated.Captain Doug Neeb says as the man started driving away the officer saw him make a turn without signaling and attempted to pull him over.The driver stops momentarily, then decides to take off, leading Alliance police on a chase that police say reached speeds at times of 100 miles an hour.Police dash camera video shows the suspects car nearly crashing during the chase as the driver attempts to make a left hand turn.It is at that point Captain Neeb says Alliance officers got a good look at the man behind the wheel and stopped their chase because it was getting too dangerous.Sitting in a turn around on westbound interstate 76, the same car is next seen by a Brimfield Township who follows it from a distance, without lights or siren, into the parking lot of a local motel.There the driver is boxed in with nowhere to go.As officers approach his car they can be heard on Brimfield's dash camera video screaming for the driver to get out of the car.Alliance officers soon run into the picture announcing they have a taser, which is fired one of its probes hitting the driver, 52-year-old Stanley Fowler, the other probe hitting one of the other officers in the hand. Both are seen on the ground in agony jolted by the five second burst of electricity.Police say the taser was necessary because Fowler was resisting arrest.Fowler admits driving the car, in which police say there were four open beers. He does not however believe he was resisting.He told Fox 8 he had no idea an officer was injured during his arrest until we told him about it.Also on the video, Fowler's dog is seen attacking the officers. The animal was in the car with him at the time and according to Brimfield Police actually bit two of the officers before he was chased away by an officer swinging a baton at him.Fowler was eventually taken into custody and charged with OVI, resisting arrest, and felony failure to comply.On Monday he was apologetic saying he thinks a combination of bad events in his life caused him to use poor judgement, but he says the fact that an officer was tasered is something for which he does not feel responsible.Fowler says the officer who fired the taser needs to be held accountable for that.Police in Alliance and in Brimfield Township say the officers reacted with Fowler's and their own safety in mind and their actions were appropriate under the circumstances.Fowler's next court appearance is scheduled for May 19th.