Toledo neighborhood calm after fatal shooting by officer
Hudson Street residents watched over their quiet North Toledo neighborhood Saturday where, hours prior, the end of the street was packed with chanting crowds and concerned neighbors after an officer shot and killed a man.
Since then, tensions had drastically cooled in the neighborhood, residents said. A makeshift memorial was placed where Lamar Richardson, 25, was fatally shot Friday by Toledo police. The memorial includes blue flowers, a small balloon, and a table decoration.
Richardson was a suspect in a series of convenience store robberies. Officers were following him, and he ran away on foot when they approached, police said. Police found him again and officers fired at him after he “produced a weapon,” Lt. Kevan Toney, a police spokesman, said. Authorities recovered the weapon and identified it as a 9 mm firearm.
Dr. Maneesha Pandey, a Lucas County deputy coroner, said Saturday that Richardson was shot three times and died of a gunshot wound to the left front of his head. He also had bullet wounds to his forearm and his right foot.
Allison Burress, who lives approximately eight houses down from where the shooting happened, was getting out of her car Friday afternoon. She saw a man wearing a neon-colored shirt run down Hudson Street, she said.
A Toledo police officer was right on his heels, but the man stopped and turned around, Burress recalled.
She heard the officer yell something and the sound of multiple gunshots rang out. Burress jumped back in her car, ducking for cover.
“Bullet ain’t got eyes,” she said.
Burress said she knew Richardson was dead when she saw him fall and slump over.
Toledo Police Chief George Kral said Mr. Richardson produced a gun and he was in a “low and ready” position — a stance preparing to quickly raise the weapon onto a target — when the foot chase ended.
Although the gun wasn’t pointed at the officers, Chief Kral said “that gun could be raised at an instant,” and officers have only seconds to respond to such a threat.
“It’s still under investigation, but looking at what I saw, I don’t have any issues with it,” he said.
“This may not make people happy, and people may not understand it or agree with it, but we do not have to wait for someone to shoot at us in order for us to use deadly force,” Chief Kral said.
The case will be submitted to the Lucas County prosecutor’s office and reviewed by a grand jury.
Several Hudson Street residents agreed with the police chief.
“They were doing their job. They were protecting us,” said Mary Tate, who also lives a few homes down from where the incident occurred.
Richardson is accused of robbing at least four convenience stores at gunpoint since June 27, Chief Kral said. Those include the In & Out Mart, 2710 Tremainsville Road; the Stop & Go, 1505 Eleanor Ave.; the Stop & Go, 4933 Secor Road; and the Circle K, 3819 Haverhill Drive.
“At each of these robberies, the man’s description was very consistent. We received several Crime Stopper tips that came in identifying Lamar Richardson as the person in the videos. So our SWAT team was following him. We were following him to see if he was going to do another robbery and hopefully catch him in the act,” Chief Kral said during a news conference Friday.
Richardson did not live in the area, according to court records. Additionally, Burress said people from outside of the neighborhood were coming to the North Toledo street to spectate.
The crowds continued to grow throughout the evening, and tensions rose as rumors circulated that officers shot an unarmed juvenile who was trying to surrender. It fueled sharp words and criticisms toward officers as police cruisers lined Hudson Street.
City officials released details of the incident throughout the evening Friday, with a showing of the cruiser’s dashboard camera video nearly five hours after the shooting. Such information would typically not be released for days, if not months after an incident, Chief Kral said.
Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz said it was important to present facts to combat some of the false information that was circulating.
“I would like to think our response last night could be used perhaps as a model for how other cities around the country could deal with something like this. Something went wrong with Ferguson, (Mo.). Something went wrong in Baltimore,” the mayor said.