MENTOR, Ohio — A barricade situation involving Mentor Police SWAT has come to an end after a man allegedly struck and injured a person with a vehicle on Wednesday morning.
Around 11 a.m., an SUV was traveling on Headlands Road between Jordan Drive and Shipman's Pond when it encountered two bicyclists, according to Mentor Police Chief Ken Gunsch.
"We had two bike riders struck by a vehicle riding along Headlands Road. One of them was struck and the male was seriously injured. The person who struck him on the vehicle then turned around and confronted another bike rider that was in that same area and actually got out of the vehicle and physically assaulted him," Gunsch said.
The bicyclist sustained minor injuries and was also transported.
The driver of the SUV then fled to a home on Orchard Drive and barricaded himself, police said.
"Luckily people on the scene were able to get his license plate, and we found his car over at his residence," Gunsch said.
The SWAT team got the man to surrender before 7 p.m. after breaching the windows of his home and deploying gas following his initial refusal.
News 5 crews saw police place the man on a stretcher once he was out of the home.
The man's identity has yet to be released.
News 5's Kaylee Olivas did chat with two neighbors who claim to know the man.
Rodney Butcher and Nick Foradis said they, along with their neighbors, have had numerous issues with him recently.
Foradis said he was forced to call 911 last Thursday after the man allegedly yelled at a few people, then tried to incite a fight with him while holding a stick.
"He said he's going to beat me up," Foradis said. "This guy across the street here (the suspect), he said, you know, he was egging him on and provoking him to come out and the neighbor said, 'If you harass my wife anymore, I'm gonna come over and, you know, we're gonna have a problem.' It's just an ongoing thing."
Foradis said in the seven years he's lived on Orchard Drive, he has seen the suspect maybe 10 times.
"I always say hello to him and try to be very nice," he said.
Butcher said he has had 10-year-olds in their neighborhood complain of the suspect trying to hit them with his car while they were riding bikes.
"'He's tried to hit me two or three times,' these children would tell me. I said just make sure you don't say anything back to him and just, you know, try to stay safe," Butcher said.
Butcher said another one of his neighbors was nearly hit head-on by the suspect in his car not too long ago, as his neighbor hopped out of his vehicle to move a sign in his yard.
Butcher said he wasn't home much of Wednesday afternoon into the evening as his neighbor barricaded himself inside his home. He left for a few hours as police asked neighbors to evacuate the area.
"We knew something was going to come, you know, to a head here. I just feel bad and hope the guys that were hit on the bicycles are recovering, and I pray for them," Butcher said.
He and Foradis said they were concerned seeing the barricade last as long as it did.
"Didn't know what was going to happen. I just pray for the family and hope that things work out," Butcher said. "We're friends here, watch over everybody."
Foradis added, "We're good people, but this guy, I mean, he was very nervous."
Butcher described the suspect as "edgy."
As we learn more, We'll Follow Through.
