No charges by grand jury in October officer-involved shooting case in Youngstown

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) — A Mahoning County grand jury Thursday declined to charge a city police officer who was involved in a fatal shooting in October.

The “no bill” in the case came after the state Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation (BCI) completed an investigation into the Oct. 12 shooting death of Ricco Acevedo , 45, in the 4300 block of Helena Avenue.

City police Staff Inspector Lt. Brian Butler said an internal affairs investigation into the shooting, which is separate from the BCI probe, is expected to be finished this week. That investigation is to determine if the officer followed the department’s policies on the use of deadly force.

WKBN is not naming the officer because criminal charges were not filed.

BCI was asked to investigate the shooting by city police. They presented their evidence to the prosecutor’s office, which, in turn, presented that evidence to the grand jury.

The shooting came after police responded to a call of a break-in at the home at about 9:15 a.m. Oct. 12. When police arrived, they found Acevedo and questioned him, according to statements, body camera footage and interviews of the officers involved in the BCI report.

Acevedo, who was on the front porch, said he was there with the permission of the person who owned the home to do some work inside, but he gave officers a fake name and date of birth and a relative of the homeowner who was there told police she did not know Acevedo.

When the officer who fired the shots told Acevedo to place his hands against the wall to handcuff him, Acevedo ran into the house and up the stairs with the officer following him. Acevedo told the officer he had a gun.

The officer told Acevedo three times to “toss the gun” and Acevedo refused, saying at one point, “I’m not tossing it.”

He tells Acevedo again to toss the gun and Acevedo says “I have nothing to live for.”

“I’m not doing this right now,” Acevedo said.

The officer asks Acevedo: “Why are you doing this?” and Acevedo answers that he does not trust police. Acevedo asks the officer if he has ever shot someone, and when the officer says yes, Acevedo replies, “You’re going to have to shoot me because I’m not going to jail.”

In his interview with BCI investigators, the officer said Acevedo moved toward him while reaching for his waistband and pulling something out of his clothes that looked like a revolver, so he fired three shots and Acevedo fell to the ground.

On the ground, Acevedo pointed the object at the officer and the officer fired again. Acevedo then stopped moving. When the officer looked closer, he discovered the object Acevedo had in his hand was not a gun. None of the BCI documents say what the object was.

An ambulance was called and paramedics did CPR on Acevedo for 20 minutes before a doctor they were consulting with told them to stop.

When asked by BCI investigators why he fired his weapon, the officer answered “he believed that Acevedo had a gun and that he believed Acevedo was going to shoot either himself or the other officers at the scene.”

When asked if he saw any other course of action besides using lethal force, the officer said no, according to a transcript of his interview.

According to the officer’s file, which was obtained by BCI, he was involved in shooting incidents in 2000 and 2001. The officer has also never been disciplined nor has he ever had a use of force complaint filed against him.

BCI is investigating two other fatal shootings involving city police officers.

In June, a man died a few days after he was shot by police on South Maryland Avenue answering a domestic violence call.

In August, some officers who are members of the Mahoning Valley Crisis Response Team were involved in a fatal shooting in Howland.

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