Lori Steineck
The Repository, Canton, Ohio
CANTON, Ohio — Police are looking for a man accused of shooting a passing ambulance and two other vehicles during a domestic dispute Thursday afternoon.
Warrants have been issued for the arrest of Willie Edward Evans Jr., 36, of Columbus Avenue NW.
Firefighters called police at 3:25 p.m. to Fire Station 8 on Dueber Avenue SW to report their ambulance had been struck by gunfire.
Battalion Chief Steven Henderson said two firefighter/paramedics were on board and they had no patients in the ambulance when the vehicle was hit. They were not injured.
Police Captain Dave Davis, who heads the detective bureau, said in a news release that investigating officers found that the paramedics were driving on Tuscarawas Street W at Columbus Avenue NW when they heard gunshots and believed their vehicle had been struck.
The officers found “two bullet impact points” on the ambulance, but the bullets did not penetrate the vehicle, according to the news release.
At 4:19 p.m., police dispatchers received a call reporting trouble at a home in the 100 block of Columbus Avenue NW. Two men had been engaged in a physical fight over domestic issues. One of them fired several shots at the other man, who was seen running away.
Detectives called to the scene determined that the bullets had struck the ambulance, another occupied vehicle moving through the area and an unoccupied parked vehicle in the 100 block of Columbus.
Detectives contacted the city Prosecutor’s Office, which obtained warrants for Evans’ arrest.
Evans remained at large Friday morning.
He is wanted on felony warrants charging him with obstructing official business, having weapons under disability, firing over a roadway and three counts of felonious assault, all with gun specifications.
___
(c)2021 The Repository, Canton, Ohio