Police to deploy more officers for Jeep Fest
In the wake of the mass shooting on Sunday in Dayton, Toledo police will assign extra officers to the Toledo Jeep Fest this weekend.
Toledo Chief George Kral had originally assigned 20 uniformed officers to patrol the event, said Lt. Kellie Lenhardt, spokesman for TPD. Since the shooting, though, the chief assigned another 10 uniformed officers to the event, along with plainclothes officers and police drones.
“We’ll be on bicycles, we’ll be on foot, we’ll be in police cars,” Lenhardt said.
Early Sunday, a gunman opened fire on people gathered in and around a popular bar in Dayton’s Oregon District, killing nine people, and injuring 32, according to Dayton police.
Less than a day before, another gunman killed 20 people at a Walmart in El Paso; two people wounded in the El Paso shooting have since died, bringing the total deaths in the shooting to 22, authorities said.
In Dayton, police shot and killed the shooter within moments, Dayton officials said, and have been credited with preventing more deaths because of their prior presence in the area and quick response time.
“I think the Dayton officers did a fantastic job getting to the threat,” said Bowling Green Police Chief Tony Hetrick.
In Toledo, a local couple stands accused of plotting an attack on a downtown bar. Elizabeth Lecron and Vincent Armstrong, both 23 and of the 3600 block of Willow Run Drive, face charges in U.S. District Court in Toledo for planning to detonate a pipe bomb at an unspecified bar. Both were arrested in December; she is being held in the Lucas County jail and he in the Corrections Center of Northwest Ohio near Stryker, Ohio, pending the next court appearance.
During times when no special events are happening, Lieutenant Lenhardt said Toledo police try to make it a point to have a presence in some of the city’s own entertainment districts, such as Hensville.
Some bars and restaurants hire off-duty officers to work security exclusively at that business, Lieutenant Lenhardt said. Chief Kral is a big proponent of having officers on bicycles and of walk-rides, where officers park their patrol cars and take walks through neighborhoods, meeting people and making themselves known to the community.
TPD trains annually for active shooters in all kinds of venues — movie theaters, schools, etc. — Lenhardt said.
“While we pray it never happens in Toledo, we are certainly trained and prepared if it should happen,” she said.
Chief Hetrick said officers are downtown every weekend in Bowling Green.
“We’re always where the people are,” Hetrick said.
Officers in patrol cars drive by the bars, he said, while police on foot monitor the area for any kind of criminal activity. For at least as long as Hetrick has been with the department — 23 years — BG police have always paid special attention to the downtown during the weekends and during special events.
The recent mass shootings in Dayton and El Paso won’t affect the way they patrol, the chief said.
“This won’t change anything for us,” he said.
Patrons’ opinions on gun violence and safety were split at downtown Toledo bars Monday night.
I don’t feel safe anymore,” Tom Anderson, 64, of Toledo, said.
“Ever since I heard that news from Dayton, I haven’t felt safe. It’s like people are going nuts.”
Anderson spoke while having a beer in a company of friends about 7:30 p.m. at Mojo’s and Legends, a gay bar at 113 N. Erie St.
Shaniqua Grant, 27, of Toledo, who was having a drink as she walked with a friend by the Fifth Third Field just across the street, did not share Anderson’s feelings.
“I would say, ‘no,” Grant said when asked whether she feels any less safe being at a downtown bar after the Sunday mass shooting in Dayton.
“I noticed more police presence downtown during bar hours. So I feel that if something like that were to happen, they would be able to control it faster,” she said, adding that she wasn’t going to change her lifestyle and stop coming to the downtown bars just as she won’t stop riding her motorcycle “just because a lot of people don’t like bikers” and like to run them off the road.
Roy Lewis, 82, of Toledo and formerly of Kentucky, also appeared unfazed as he was leaving Fricker’s, a bar at 19 N. St. Clair St., about the same time.
He said he generally is not concerned with gun violence when visiting downtown bars.
“As long as it’s not dark, I don’t mind,” Lewis said, adding that he is a member of the National Rifle Association.
E.T. Trychel, 59, of Lambertville, Mich., who was having a drink at a nearby Ye Olde Cock n Bull Tavern, 9 N. Huron St., also said he was not feeling threatened, adding “not right here, right now,” as opposed to during a baseball game at the Fifth Third Field, when Hensville bars are crowded. Angela Schultz, 45, of Erie, Mich., who was with him, appeared more concerned.
“I know my senses would be heightened,” Schultz said in reference to the ballgame scenario.
“This is the first time I am really nervous about a (potential) gunman...,” she said. “It’s starting to hit real close to home. And when (President) Trump accidentally said he gave prayers to Toledo victims, I just thought, ’Oh, no! There’s going to be a copycat.”