EVENDALE, Ohio — Body camera footage released Monday shows the moments Evendale Sgt. Marc Terhar fires his gun more than a dozen times at 21-year-old Carlos Ramirez at a Speedway gas station on Reading Road.
On February 2, at around 11:44 p.m., Evendale officers were in the middle of a traffic stop on Reading Road when they heard a gunshot nearby, according to Evendale police. While investigating the sound, a witness directed Terhar to the Speedway, where he saw Ramirez standing outside his pickup truck with a long gun, police said.
Evendale police and the Hamilton County Prosecutor's Office allege Ramirez pointed the gun at Terhar, which prompted him to open fire. The body-worn camera makes it difficult to see how Ramirez behaved when he saw Terhar, but Terhar fired several shots in his direction, toward the gas pumps at the station. Bystanders were present in the background.
Ramirez was not hit by Terhar's gunfire and fled the scene. Officer Terhar is seen checking on innocent bystanders who were behind the truck he was firing at before the body camera video is cut off.
You can watch the body camera footage released by the Evendale Police Department below:
According to the Evendale Police Department's policy for deadly force applications, "an officer may use deadly force to protect him/herself or others from what he/she reasonably believes is an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury." Evendale Police Chief Tim Holloway said, despite the gas pumps and civilians nearby, Terhar did not violate the policy because he was facing a life-threatening situation.
Holloway said the incident is the first time in the Evendale Police Department's 62-year history that an officer has fired a weapon at a person.
After he fled the gas station, police chased Ramirez for several miles until he crashed into the back of a Metro bus near Race Street and Central Parkway in downtown Cincinnati.
"Luckily no one was injured seriously in this crash," CPD Captain Joe Richardson said on Feb. 2. "The suspect was taken into custody after the use of a pepper ball by a couple county officers and the use of a police dog by county officers and he’s not seriously injured either.”
A press release sent by Evendale police on Monday provided more detail into the moments before and after Ramirez crashed.
According to police, Ramirez was spotted by an "officer from a neighboring agency" driving down Reading Road with the shotgun pointed out the driver's window of his vehicle. Police said when Ramirez's vehicle collided with the Metro bus, the gun fell out of the drivers window and landed in the street nearby.
Officers ordered Ramirez to get out of his vehicle and move to a nearby spot where they intended to arrest him, Evendale police said. Initially, Ramirez began to follow officers' orders, but police said he eventually moved toward the shotgun and attempted to reach for it. Police shot him with less-than-lethal pepper ball rounds, hitting him numerous times, Evendale police said.
A K-9 was also deployed and Ramirez was arrested shortly after, police said. Ramirez was being held under a $780,000 bond and, after a Monday hearing with the Hamilton County Grand Jury, has been indicted on two counts of felonious assault, two counts of failing to comply with a police officer, one count of inducing panic and five counts of aggravated menacing.
At the time of the incident, Ramirez had just been released from the custody of law enforcement; Evendale police said he'd been arrested 24 hours earlier for OVI after an Ohio State Highway Patrol trooper stopped him for speeding. He was taken to the Warren County Justice Center. Evendale police said when Ramirez was arrested for that incident, he had a handgun on him.
Seven hours after his release in Warren County, he was at the Speedway with his shotgun and threatened five different people, according to the prosecutor's office.
Police said "it was also reported" that just before Terhar found him with his gun at the Speedway, Ramirez had allegedly fired a gun from his vehicle while driving south on I-75 near Monroe; OSHP issued a radio broadcast informing officers to watch for Ramirez and his truck, but Evendale police said their officers were not aware of the broadcast before running into Ramirez.
The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation was called in to independently investigate Terhar's involvement, since he fired shots at Ramirez. Terhar was immediately placed on paid administrative leave after the Feb. 2 incident.
Evendale police said Terhar was cleared to return to duty full-time beginning February 11.
