A Canton man pulled over for speeding is accused of lifting a loaded gun to an Ohio State Highway Patrol trooper’s face before the trooper was able to grab it away.
November 04, 2021 – By Lori Steineck – Source The Repository (TNS)
CANTON TOWNSHIP, Ohio — A Canton man pulled over for speeding is accused of lifting a loaded gun to an Ohio State Highway Patrol trooper’s face before the trooper was able to grab it away.
The 25-year-old man had been driving 51 mph northbound on Trump Avenue NE in a 35 mph zone and nearing 14th Street NE when the trooper pulled him over at 10:14 a.m. Tuesday for speeding and a safety belt violation, according to Stark County Jail records.
The trooper reported smelling marijuana and seeing drug paraphernalia in the vehicle. He also wrote in jail records that the man was reaching around inside the car for something.
The trooper told him to stop, and he asked the man to step outside the car.
When he did, the man reportedly reached down beside his right leg and pulled a loaded gun up “towards my face,” the trooper wrote in the jail records. The trooper grabbed the gun from his hand and arrested him.
The Smith & Wesson MP Shield .40-caliber handgun had a fully loaded magazine and a live round in the chamber, according to the jail records.
The trooper also noted in the jail records that at no time did the man did tell him that there was a gun inside the vehicle.
Sgt. David Garber of the patrol’s Canton post said that the man was a concealed carry permit holder, but required training teaches that “you are not allowed to touch the firearm in a law enforcement officer’s presence. When he brandished the weapon, that’s a threat of violence.”
Canton police were called to assist.
The man was booked into the jail on charges of carrying a concealed weapon, cocaine possession, drug possession, an open container violation and possession of drug paraphernalia.
He was later released on his own recognizance pending a Canton Municipal Court hearing.
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