Brookfield police officers Krysta Wedge and Nicholas Leonardo escort Charles O’Connor to the police booking area.
Brookfield Township Administration Building was locked down this morning when a man Brookfield police had a warrant for drove into the parking lot with a reported suicide-by-cop plan.
Brookfield Trustees were holding their monthly department head meeting when Police Chief Dan Faustino, who wears a police radio and quietly monitors transmissions, abruptly jumped up and went from the trustee’s conference room into the lobby.
“He’s going for his gun,” Trustee Dan Suttles said of the chief. “He’s locking the door.”
Faustino locked the back door, the door most members of the public use to enter the building.
“What the hell is going on,” said Fire Chief David Masirovits, who asked Faustino if the meeting attendees should move to another area of the building.
“You’re good right now,” Faustino said.
Faustino regularly huddled with Sgt. Aaron Kasiewicz, who was in contact with the 911 dispatcher.
The subject’s car – the subject was later identified as Charles O’Connor, 42, of Boardman – could be seen in the parking area from the conference room, and Faustino reported that O’Connor was sitting in the car.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea sitting in front of the window, Joe,” Trustee Ron Haun said to the NEWS On the Green reporter, referring to the reporter’s position in the conference room.
A landscaping boulder in the parking lot obscured the reporter’s sight line to the subject.
Fiscal Officer Dena McMullin informed the attendees that the windowless file room attached to the conference room is her safe room and could accommodate everyone in the conference room.
The attendees could occasionally hear radio transmissions as Faustino and Kasiewicz moved throughout the building, one of which described the subject as having a suicide plan.
“The guy with the suicide plan is in our lot right now,” Faustino said. “The information is that he has a fake gun but is going to try a suicide by cop.”
About 8 ½ minutes after Fasutino left the conference room, he and other officers moved in on O’Connor cautiously and arrested him without incident.
“This is a first for me,” Suttles said.
Police later released a report by Kasiewicz. Trumbull County 911 had called Kasiewicz informing him that O’Connor had contacted a help hotline, and advised them that he had bought a toy gun and was taking it to the police station with a plan to pull out the gun so police would shoot and kill him, Kasiewicz said.
The hotline staff member contacted Boardman police because O’Connor lives in Boardman, and Boardman police got in touch with O’Connor by telephone. They learned that O’Connor was in the Brookfield parking lot.
Two policemen at the station monitored O’Connor from the garage windows and a third who was on patrol blocked off Strimbu Drive. Kasiewicz, carrying a less-lethal shotgun, took up a position outside where he could see O’Connor, and had the Boardman dispatcher ask O’Connor to exit his car with his hands up. O’Connor complied and police moved in to arrest him.
O’Connor was not carrying a weapon, and none were found in the car, police said.
O’Connor acknowledged making the help hotline call, said he was not right in the head, and had thoughts of harming himself, police said.
O’Connor was charged with a misdemeanor, inducing panic.
Brookfield police had a warrant for O’Connor charging him with misdemeanor assault stemming from a July 3 incident at O’Brien Memorial Health Care Center, 563 Brookfield Ave. O’Connor was a nursing aide and injured an 84-year-old patient, police said.
O’Connor entered the woman’s room and she yelled for help when he reached under her nightgown, the victim told police. He grabbed her hand and pushed back two of her fingers, causing what police said was severe bruising.
The victim said she had never seen O’Connor before.
A center employee told police the woman’s pinkie was broken, police said. The employee said the victim does not care for male aides to check on her, and that that information is posted on a kiosk but O’Connor had not read it, and went to check if the woman needed changed and cleaned, police said.
O’Connor has not appeared in court on either charge. He is to be arraigned on the assault charge Aug. 2.
After being processed, O’Connor was taken to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation, police said.
