Police say man tried to drive car at officers
NEWARK STABBING
NEWARK — The man accused of stabbing a woman in Newark this week led officers on a pursuit into rural Licking County and was shot at by police when he tried to drive his car at a Newark officer, according to documents from court and the prosecutor’s office.
Raymond D. Taylor, 36, of Newark, was charged Thursday with felonious assault stemming from the stabbing Wednesday afternoon on Garfield Avenue. From there, Taylor led officers on a chase for several miles northeast to the 2500 block of Montgomery Road in rural Madison Township, where he drove off the road, down a dirt driveway and then into a field, authorities said.
Taylor eventually struck a tree “while driving at an NPD officer,” according to a criminal complaint and warrant filed on Thursday in Licking County Common Pleas Court. Authorities have not identified which officer or officers fired their guns at Taylor or how many rounds were fired, but there is no indication from authorities or court records that he was struck.
Taylor was hospitalized for minor injuries Wednesday evening and was in the Licking County jail on Thursday. He was in a wheelchair when he appeared via video feed from the jail for his bond hearing on Thursday.
“He stabbed a lady multiple times,” Assistant Licking County Prosecutor Cliff Murphy said during the bond hearing. “He escaped at high speeds from the Newark Police Department. He tried to ram them with a cruiser.”
The victim in Wednesday’s stabbing was identified Thursday as Cheryl Loughman, 36, of Newark. She was taken to Licking Memorial Hospital, then transferred to OhioHealth Grant Medical Center in Columbus. Her condition was not available Thursday.
Dash-camera footage from the incident released by Newark police on Thursday shows officers pursuing Taylor out of the city and along rural roads before following him off the road and into the field. Then, after Taylor’s vehicle is no longer in the frame of the cameras, two officers got out of their cruisers, weapons drawn.
Seconds after an officer shouts, “he’s coming right at us!” a third officer approaches, running toward the two parked cruisers. The third officer appears to fire three shots before Taylor’s white vehicle again enters the frame and crashes into a tree.
The three officers involved were identified Thursday as Justin Wisecarver, hired in January 2005; Brody Maring, hired in May 2015; and Oren Nauman, hired in June 2016. All three are on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation, which is standard procedure, Eskins said.
Taylor already was awaiting trial in county Common Pleas Court on two counts of domestic violence and one count of escape. Those charges, all felonies, stem from a March domestic dispute in which Taylor allegedly threatened a family member with a pocket knife, choked another relative, stated he would burn the house down and then attempted to run from officers after being arrested, according to court documents.
His bond in that case was initially set at $25,000, but Taylor was released from jail on his own recognizance in early April due to injuries and medical treatment, said Stephen Wolfe, who was appointed as Taylor’s defense attorney in the outstanding case and who represented him at Thursday’s bond hearing.
Licking County Common Pleas Court Magistrate Mattie Klein set Taylor’s bond at $1 million in the felonious assault case Thursday and reinstated his previous $25,000 bond in the other case.