“We were able to deploy a gas round into his vehicle, which hastened his exit out of the vehicle, and we had a peaceful resolution,” Fairborn Police Chief Terry Bennington said.
Police initially were called at 10:50 a.m. to the Avalon Place Apartments in the area of Old Yellow Springs Road and Rockdell Drive after a car struck a building.
There, the suspect apparently entered his father-in-law’s apartment and retrieved an AR-15, the chief said. He faces possible aggravated burglary charges among others.
The Regional Emergency Response Team responded, along with law enforcement from Fairborn and Huber Heights police and the Greene County Sheriff’s Office.
Police negotiators spoke with the suspect for about two hours until he turned off his cellphone before they ultimately fired a gas canister round through the passenger side of the car. The suspect almost immediately got out and surrendered without incident.
“He was irate, up and down, for most of the time we were talking to him,” Bennington said.
The suspect, identified as 37-year-old James Mark Leach Jr., was involved in a domestic disturbance reported at 9:40 a.m. in the 4800 block of Creeknoll Court in Huber Heights, according to a release from the Huber Heights Police Division.
When officers arrived, they saw Leach leaving in a white Cadillac. An officer tried to pull over the sedan, which did not stop for the officer’s lights and siren. The suspect then made a U-turn and “drove quickly at the other officer, who drove out of the way,” the release stated.
Officers briefly pursued the suspect, but it was terminated due to high speeds, dangerous driving and road conditions, police said.
About 45 minutes later, Leach returned to the house. Officers responded but as Leach fled, “he again drove quickly at the officers,” the release stated.
A second pursuit also was quickly terminated due to high speeds, dangerous driving and road conditions, plus the suspect was able to avoid a tire deflation device set up on the road, police said.
Leach is held on $750,000 bond in the Montgomery County Jail for domestic violence. Additional charges are pending the approval of prosecutors in Montgomery and Greene counties.
Building inspectors will have to check the apartment, which was missing several rows of bricks, for structural damage after the car hit the building “at a good clip,” Bennington said.
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