He tried to flee police during a storm, but they were not chasing him. And he did not get far.
CANTON Police officers were not even trying to chase him.
Yet, a 32-year-old man allegedly attempted to flee officers and struck a parked police cruiser in the 700 block of High Avenue SW about 3 a.m. Wednesday after officers responded to a possible robbery.
According to police reports, Cordero M. Stephen of 11th Street NE, tried to leave and backed into an unoccupied marked police cruiser with a 2004 Volvo before speeding away and striking a utility pole.
Canton Police Lt. Dennis Garren said the sergeant at the scene went to talk to Stephen and he tried to re-maneuver the car to get out of the parking lot. Successful, Stephen headed south of High through an overnight storm at a high rate of speed.
He did not get far.
Stephen made it about four blocks before he struck an American Electric Power Company power pole and a building in the 1100 block of High, the police crash report showed.
At the crash, officers found him trying to scale razor wire-topped fence before he fell into water-filled loading dock, which contained about 1 to 3 feet of standing water, Garren said.
Officers found a bag of suspected cocaine and another bag of prescription pills in the wrecked vehicle, which belonged to a northeast Canton woman, Stark County court and jail records show.
Garren said Stephen was treated at Aultman Hospital after he told officers he could not breathe. He was then jailed.
Jail records showed Stephen was booked into the facility on charges of failure to comply with police, felony drug tampering, cocaine possession, felony obstructing official business and a parole violation.
A passenger in Stephen’s car, a 27-year-old Massillon woman, was not arrested.
Stephen served prison time for felony drug possession and two counts of robbery before his release in December 2018. He also was listed as a violator-at-large who “should be considered dangerous and possibly armed” by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.
Stephen remained behind bars Thursday, held without bond pending court hearings.
