Details released on Bluffton shootout suspect captured in Michigan
Dec. 14—BLUFFTON — There's more information being released now in a Friday night shooting incident between a Bluffton Police officer and a Findlay man.
According to an updated news release from the Allen County Sheriff's Office, the man involved in the shootout, Ronald David Powell, 50, stole a vehicle near Bluffton and led authorities on a chase from the Toledo area to Monroe County, Michigan, where he surrendered.
The whole thing started when an unidentified Bluffton Police Department officer was trying to stop the vehicle Powell was driving at Jefferson and Huber streets.
When Powell refused to stop, the officer followed.
Someone inside the vehicle, believed to be Powell, fired shots at the officer.
Powell eventually stopped on Bentley Road, just south of Hillville Road.
Powell got out of the vehicle as did a female passenger, now identified as Amanda Nicole Wrede, 32, of Toledo.
Powell fired more shots at the officer, and the officer returned gunfire. Powell and Wrede fled to a field and wooded area.
Officers secured the perimeter, and Wrede was taken into custody.
Powell escaped capture and stole a vehicle two miles away from where he ditched the original vehicle.
At 3:47 p.m. Saturday, the Allen County Sheriff's Office was notified that Powell was seen at a location in Toledo and that officers tried to stop him there, but Powell fled the area.
Stop sticks were deployed, and Powell surrendered in Monroe County, Michigan, after his tires were flattened.
He's being held in the Monroe County (Michigan) Sheriff's Office jail on multiple outstanding warrants and an additional felony criminal charge of fleeing.
Charges in Allen County are expected in the coming days.
Wrede was being held on suspicion of felonious assault with a deadly weapon. She is being held in the Allen County Jail on a felony charge of aiding and abetting.
Personnel from several agencies provided support in the form of patrol services, drone services, aviation services, K-9 services, investigative resources, emergency management, and medical standbys, including Bluffton, Cairo and Bath EMS; the Ohio State Highway Patrol, the Putnam County Sheriff's Office; the Pandora Police Department; the Columbus Grove Police Department, the Ottawa Police Department; the Hancock County Sheriff's Office; the Hardin County Sheriff's Office; the Auglaize County Sheriff's Office; the Delphos Police Department; the Bluffton Police Department; the Allen County Emergency Management Agency; the Hancock County Emergency Management Agency; the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the Allen County Sheriff's Office.
Reach Sam Shriver at 567-242-0409.
