As of Tuesday, he was listed as an inmate of Clark County Jail.
Springfield police responded to a call around 3 a.m. on June 6 from a woman saying that a man had been holding her daughter captive at a house in the 300 block of Fair Street, according to an incident report.
Credit: Bill Lackey
Credit: Bill Lackey
A responding officer knocked on the door but didn’t get an answer. As the officer was about to leave, a woman walked around the side of the house and asked for help, the report stated. She had blood on her nightgown and “visible lacerations” on her face.
The woman told police that Woodruff “threatened to kill her and himself” and “had a gun with an extended clip,” according to the incident report. The officer could see Woodruff pacing back and forth by a window in the house.
The woman also told police that her grandson was inside the house, according to the incident report.
The boy had been in the house since police arrived, said Dorah Harris, the boy’s great-grandmother. She said that the man, later identified as Woodruff, had held her daughter and great-grandson in the house.
Credit: Bill Lackey
Credit: Bill Lackey
Harris said that her daughter was able to escape but was not able to get the young boy, who ultimately came out of the house alone shortly before 1 p.m.
Throughout the day, Springfield police officers, including SWAT members, were communicating with the man holed up in the house using a loudspeaker on their vehicles, phones and a robot they were able to send in earlier that day. Police also fired teargas into an open door in the house.
The intersection of South Lowry Avenue and Fair Street was blocked and the house surrounded for several hours. Ohio Edison was contacted that afternoon to cut power to the house, where service was restored later that day.
A court hearing has not been scheduled for Woodruff as of Tuesday, according to court records.
