MENTOR, OH — Newly released body camera video and 911 calls reveal the chaotic series of events that led to an hours-long standoff in Mentor this week.
Two bicyclists said they were attacked by a man in an SUV as they rode along Headlands Road just after 11 a.m. Wednesday.
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“A biker has just been hit by a speeding car in front of my house,” a woman told a 911 dispatcher.
The video showed Mentor Police arrived and found a 72-year-old man hurt.
“Riding along the road here and some guy deliberately crossed and hit me,” said the man, who has not been identified by police. “I couldn’t even stop.”
That driver was gone by the time police arrived.
But less than a mile away, another bicyclist called 911 to report his own run-in.
“I’m riding my bike and some guy went by in a white Ford Explorer and threw a fricking battery pack at me,” said the man.
As dispatchers tried to sort it all out, the second bicyclist said the driver circled back.
“Now he’s trying to hit me with his car,” the man said.
Police arrived, but again the driver was gone.
On body camera video, the man told police the driver told him to give the driver his phone, tried to run him down, then punched him in the face, took his phone and his bike.
“He threw my freaking bicycle,” said the man. “Look? See my bike,” he said, pointing to a nearby pond where the man said the driver tossed the bike.
“And I’m like what the hell is wrong with this guy?” said the man.
Witnesses provided police with the driver’s license plate number just as dispatchers received a call from a woman on Orchard Road.
“Our neighbor was acting erratically and sped off and my mother-in-law called me and said she heard on the scanner that someone like ran over someone in the Headlands,” she told the dispatcher.
Officers rushed to the man’s home, where they said the suspected driver, Michael Leppelmeier, barricaded himself for hours.
Eventually, SWAT officers entered the home and took Leppelmeier into custody.
Police said the 42-year-old was taken to the hospital and will face felonious assault, robbery, and aggravated vehicular assault charges when he gets out.
Police said both bicyclists were seriously injured but are expected to recover.
Neither man told police they had any issue with the driver before he attacked.
