CONGRESS TOWNSHIP — Two Wayne County Sheriff’s officers were stabbed and a suspect was arrested and sits in the Ashland County Jail after an incident on Tuesday morning, according to the department’s Facebook page.
Sheriff Tom Ballinger and Sgt. Dan Broome were both transported to Wooster Community Hospital, with Broome later air flighted to an Akron-area hospital. Both Ballinger and Broome were eventually released from the hospital and are recovering, the department reported.
Chad Alan Palmer, 34, was taken into custody and is being housed in the Ashland County Jail. He is facing “several serious charges” in connection with this incident, the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office stated. Palmer is expected to be arraigned in court on Wednesday morning.
Officials were called to the area multiple times Tuesday morning by numerous callers about a suspicious person. Chief Deputy Joseph Copenhaver said the sheriff and deputy approached the suspect at 10:59 a.m., who pulled out a knife and attacked them, then fled on foot.
Authorities said Ballinger suffered a stab wound to the arm, while Broome was stabbed in the groin.
The search for the suspect triggered a response from multiple agencies including the Ashland County Sheriff’s Office, Medina County Sheriff’s Office, Summit County emergency personnel, the Ohio State Highway Patrol, EMS and more.
As the search progressed, the Wayne County Sheriff’s reported the suspect posted videos onto social media from inside a shed where he said he doused himself with gasoline. Investigators saw the videos and that the suspect had indeed been covered with gas, according to a report broadcast by WKYC Channel 3 in Cleveland.
At around 1 p.m., authorities say Palmer was found on the roof of a shed, with negotiators brought in to help bring him down.
“The Sheriff’s Office would like to thank everyone involved at the scene and the community outpouring of thoughts, prayers, calls, stopping in the office, all wanting to help in some way,” the Facebook post stated. “It is truly appreciated by all of our staff.”
The sheriff’s office said the suspect was known to them and that he has a history of mental health issues.
In December 2017, Palmer was sentenced to eight years in prison after pleading guilty to felonious assault (against a peace officer), failure to comply with an order of a peace officer, grand theft of a motor vehicle, vandalism and misdemeanor aggravated menacing.
Those charges stemmed from a Jan. 19 incident which then-Wayne County Sheriff’s Capt. Doug Hunter described to the Wooster Daily Record as “a bizarre” series of events without “any type of logical explanation” while Palmer was under the influence of drugs.
Northwestern Local Schools was placed under a soft lockdown as a precautionary measure while the search was on for the suspect. The lockdown was lifted after the arrest, the district told Fox 8 News in Cleveland.