Man sentenced for assaulting disabled man during carjacking before fleeing Ravenna police
A Cleveland man has been sentenced for assaulting a disabled man during a carjacking and then leading Ravenna police in a pursuit before attempting a second carjacking last fall.
Portage County Common Pleas Judge Becky Doherty sentenced 26-year-old Ezequiel Vasquez on Monday to nine to 12.5 years in prison.
The Portage County Sheriff's Office said it responded to a report that someone, later identified as Vasquez, threatened a 71-year-old disabled Ravenna Township man with a gun.
The carjacker then pulled the man from his 2021 Ford Escape, threw him to the ground and stole the SUV in the state Route 59 Walmart parking lot at around noon Oct. 27, according to the sheriff's offfice.
It was reported that the SUV nearly struck a witness, another man, while it was leaving the parking lot.
Ravenna police said an officer responded to a report that the SUV had been going through red lights and passing other vehicles and spotted it in the East Main Street Taco Bell's parking lot. When the officer approached the vehicle on foot, Vasquez put the SUV into reverse, forcing the officer to get out of the way. The SUV nearly struck the officer's cruiser and another vehicle before leaving the parking lot.
Multiple Ravenna police officers then pursued the SUV along a convoluted route on city streets, during which the SUV struck another vehicle in traffic.
Police temporarily lost sight of the SUV at one point, but bystanders pointed them in the direction it had gone and police found it abandoned behind the East Main Street PNC Bank at Pratt Street.
Officers saw Vasquez on foot nearby and he refused orders to stop and take his hands out of his pckets, police said, and ran through the Taco Bell parking lot.
After attempts to stop Vasquez with an electric shock device and a police K-9 failed, police say he jumped through the open driver's window of a car and grabbed at a Ravenna woman behind the wheel in the Walgreen's parking lot. As police grappled with him, one officer was accidentally shocked when a wire from a shock device wrapped around his leg, but police eventually handcuffed Vasquez.
Vasquez pleaded guilty in December to to second-degree felony assault, second- and third-degree felony robbery, third-degree felony failure to comply with the order or signal of a police officer, and fourth-degree felony grand theft. The second-degree felonies and the grand theft charge include firearm specifications.
As part of a plea deal, additional felony robbery, theft, receiving stolen property, and possession of a deadly weapon while under detention — allegedly a shank in Portage County Jail — and misdemeanor leaving the scene of an accident and resisting arrest charges were dismissed.
Reporter Jeff Saunders can be reached at jsaunders@recordpub.com.
This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Man sentenced for assaulting disabled Portage man during carjacking
