Told Officers ‘Shoot Out’ Imminent; No Weapons Found
Police: Man Falsely Accused
Man Of Brandishing Handgun
ONEONTA – An Oneonta man was arrested after he allegedly made a series of calls to the Oneonta Police Department, falsely accusing neighbors of being “involved in a drug deal” and brandishing a handgun.
According to Police Chief Doug Brenner, Thomas E. Harker, 64, Oneonta, allegedly called the Oneonta Police department yesterday afternoon, first to report an alleged drug deal, then made a second call, where he allegedly told police he witnessed one of the two men pull out a handgun.
“He told officers there was going to be ‘a shoot-out’,” said Brenner.
Police officers Brandon Damiani and Edmund Donley responded to the scene, where, believing one of the men to be armed with a weapon, retrieved an AR-15 223 rifle from their patrol car. “You meet the degree of force with which you’re presented,” said Brenner. “The officers were able to get cover behind their vehicle and open up with verbal commands.”
The two accused men were ordered to get on the ground, but after discussion and a search by the officers, were found not to be in possession of a weapon or drugs.
“These guys weren’t doing anything wrong,” said Brenner. “(Harker) knew damn well they didn’t have a gun. Things could have gotten really serious, but it’s a testament to our officers, who did a good job of communicating and explaining the situation, that it didn’t.”
Harker was arrested and charged with filing a false report and reckless endangerment, and the officers apologized to the two men. “I feel bad for them,” said Brenner. “They did nothing, but they were ordered around. Yes, we arrested the man who accused them, but that doesn’t seem like much consolation.”
Myself and my husband was involved in a similar occurence at a local diner where we just moved to last year (2022).Dinner Bell diner near my house in Elyria Ohio called the cops to my house under the pretense that I pulled a firearm on them. Me and my husband were new to the area, decided to stop for food. A lady took our order. We noticed the man. He was talking to someone else. He moved towards our van and lowered himself and said” I’m surprised y’all still want to eat here after what I said” we said “what did you say”he replied, “black lives don’t matter all lives matter“, I was very upset, and I let the lady who took our order know what he had said, she looked at him, who had went back into the restaurant, to appear to make our food, she shook her head in disgust, and said she was sorry, I said I want my money back, (I assumed we gave them money since our drinks came out already), she said “you didn’t give us any money sweetheart” we withdrew our order (we didn’t leave the drinks) and got out of there. I called that day as well, on the way back home to complain and they didn’t help at all. I found out he posted black lives don’t matter all lives matter on the signage in front of the building. The police came and patted me down held me up for over an hour. It was embarrassing and traumatic.
Upon obtaining the police report from Lorain County Sherriff, I discovered it was not the man who put the false report in about us having guns, it was the woman. She also said I had a dagger tattoo underneath my eye. It was on 9/19/2022, they said we had a number of guns of different kinds. I do own a firearm however, none to the degree of the allegation, because it was totally false. They were only trying to be defensive because the racism the man had towards me and my husband. After the incident, I found out that the business was picketed because of the very thing he said to me “Black lives dont matter, all lives matter” was on the signage in front of the building in 2020.