Across the state, people in Ohio’s largest cities are getting arrested and charged with crimes for violating Gov. Mike DeWine’s stay-at-home order, and the situation is no different in Toledo, where at least eight people have been charged for violating the order within the past week.
Early Thursday morning five people were arrested while at a block party attended by more than 50 people on North Ontario Street, according to documents filed in Toledo Municipal Court. At least three other Toledoans were charged earlier this week with similar offenses for reportedly having a large gathering around the same location, North Ontario and Walnut streets.
Toledo police Chief George Kral said the state’s order doesn’t mean that people have to stay inside their homes. They can go outside with those who live in the same household. But gatherings like block parties are prohibited, and several of the arrests in Toledo came after police warned the same individual multiple times about violating the order.
“In the case of the arrests for violating the order that we have seen the last several days, officers arrested people who they had previously seen earlier in the night and advised to disperse,” said Lt. Kellie Lenhardt, spokesman for the Toledo Police Department. “The morning of April 9, five people were arrested at a self-proclaimed ‘block party’ that individuals were promoting on social media.”
The recent arrests at Ontario and Walnut streets also occurred near the the Greenbelt Place Apartments, where multiple recent gatherings have occurred.
"Officers have been dispatched to the Greenbelt Apartments and the areas surrounding them more than a dozen times in the last several days for disorderly crowds, fights, and even a person shot," Lieutenant Lenhardt said.
Ohio’s stay-at-home order, which is in effect until May 1, prohibits gatherings of any size, and requires nonessential businesses to be closed. People can still leave their homes to do things like grocery shopping or visiting friends or relatives in need, but most social activities are prohibited.
And Toledo isn’t the only place where the order is being enforced through arrests.
According to a report by the Columbus Dispatch, the first person in Franklin County charged for violating the stay-at-home order, 29-year-old Ahmed Ali, was arrested April 2 when officers were dispatched to an area for reported gunshots. Officers found Mr. Ali with a loaded gun, and according to the report, he resisted arrest and told officers that he had coronavirus. Court records later indicated that he did not have the illness.
Multiple people have been charged in Hamilton County — Cincinnati is the county seat — and in northeast Ohio, according to media reports.
Chief Kral said the best action the community can take is just to stay at home.
“This is, really, completely in our hands to getting back to any kind of normalcy in our lives,” he said.
Early Thursday, Toledo police arrested Dashawn Coleman, 31, of the 300 block of Clark Street; Jemal Townsend, 25, of the 200 block of Sycamore Street; Mitchell Whitfield, 34, of the 2100 block of Horton Street; Stefanique Cox, 30, of the 800 block of Walnut Street; and Nyasia Brown, 27, of the 900 block of Walnut Street. Each was charged with riot with intent to commit a misdemeanor, a first-degree misdemeanor, and violation of any rule of the director of health or the department of health, a second-degree misdemeanor.
Ms. Cox also faces charges of obstructing official business and resisting arrest relating to Thursday’s incident.
The arrests came as police responded to the 800 block of North Ontario Street after receiving reports of a large block party. They found about 50 people gathered, according to court records. Officers gave multiple orders for the crowd to disperse under the stay-at-home order. The five people arrested are accused of ignoring the order to disperse.
Each pleaded not guilty during their arraignments Thursday.
Chief Kral doesn't believe that these groups are specifically out to defy the state's order.
"I don't think you're having groups that are thumbing their nose at the order," he said.
The chief has discussed the possibility of a city curfew with Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz. The mayor declared a state of emergency in Toledo several weeks ago, which gives him emergency powers he would not otherwise have, including instituting a curfew.
During a news conference Thursday, Mayor Kapszukiewicz said he is open to enacting a curfew but that he did not believe it would be any stronger than the directives the state has already put in place.
Chief Kral said the recent large gatherings, while prohibited, do not warrant a curfew for the entire city. Plus he doesn’t want officers to spend their time pulling people over or stopping them on the street at midnight for violating curfew.
“For several reasons I don’t recommend [a curfew] at this time,” he said.
Staff writer Sarah Elms contributed.
First Published April 9, 2020, 12:18 p.m.
