Cruisers hit during pursuit

METRICH Enforcement Unit, along with additional officers from Fostoria Police Department, were preparing to execute the drug-related search warrant on a home at 459 N. Town St., the residence of Jeffrey A. Pree, 32, and Maria E. Velasquez, 38.

Before the warrant was executed, Pree was observed leaving the residence in a Chrysler 300, and a 2011 Jeep driven by Jodi R. Ridenour, 31, also was seen leaving. Officers and agents tried to stop the vehicles, a drug task force release states.

The release states Pree immediately pulled over for police, but Ridenour began to flee, narrowly missing several officers who were standing outside her vehicle.

A Fostoria Police Department report states an officer tried to make a traffic stop on the silver Jeep at 10:40 p.m. It went north at a high rate of speed, struck a cruiser and an undercover vehicle and fled east on Center Street, north on Town Street and went on McDougal Street to Fremont Street at a high rate of speed, according to the police report.
American Electric Power was contacted to repair the snapped power pole in the 1000 block of East Fremont Street, it states.

During the search of the residence, officers found suspected crack cocaine, marijuana and criminal tools, according to the release.

Pree was charged with trafficking crack cocaine, and Ridenour, who was treated and released from ProMedica Fostoria Community Hospital, was charged with driving without an operator’s license and failure to comply with an order or signal of a police officer.

Additional charges of trafficking crack cocaine and possession of criminal tools were pending against Pree, and a charge of permitting drug abuse was pending against Velasquez. Officers were awaiting the return of the laboratory analysis of the substances discovered in the residence, the release states.

The task force and officers from Fostoria and Tiffin police departments also executed a drug related search warrant on T. Johnson’s Barbershop, 109 1/2 W. North St., and a residence at 109 W. North St., Fostoria, Tuesday afternoon.

The search warrant yielded money, suspected cocaine, marijuana and criminal tools, a release states.

Terrance R. Johnson, 56, who occupies the residence and owns the business, was charged with trafficking cocaine. Additional charges of trafficking cocaine, possession of cocaine, possession of marijuana and possession of criminal tools were pending Wednesday.

Originally published in the Advertiser Tribune on November 24, 2016.