Two Cincinnati Firefighters Sprayed With BB Gun Pellets While Responding To Call

Aug. 5, 2004
Two Cincinnati firefighters were shot at Tuesday night while tending to a patient, and the BBs fired also hit the windshield of a police cruiser.
Two Cincinnati firefighters were shot at Tuesday night while tending to a patient, and the BBs fired also hit the windshield of a police cruiser.

The shooting was among at least three others Tuesday night and early Wednesday in Over-the-Rhine, Bond Hill and South Cumminsville. No one was seriously hurt.

Firefighters were shot at about 11:15 p.m. at the intersection of 14th and Green streets. Cincinnati police officers said the shots may have come from a building on the east side of Vine Street, near Green.

Just three hours earlier, police officers had looked unsuccessfully for 8-year-old boys who'd reportedly been firing a BB gun nearby on Elm Street. Officials did not know if the incidents were related.

Firefighters Drew Posinski, 26, and Paul Krekeler, 39, weren't seriously hurt. One was hit by a BB in the back, and one had a welt on his neck. The two police officers in the cruiser, Carl Blackwell and Jannytta Oliver, were not hurt.

In the first shooting, Samuel Watts, 23, was shot shortly before 7:30 p.m. on Dalewood Place in Bond Hill. Police were still looking for the shooter.

Just after midnight in Over-the-Rhine, a 12-year-old boy was shot in the shoulder.

Then in South Cumminsville about an hour later, Willie Brown was shot with a .45-caliber pistol on Cass Avenue by a man he knew. Brown said it was an accident.

The police report about Tuesday's BB gun shooting valued the Ford Crown Victoria's front window at $400.

"The line between police officers and firefighters is getting blurred more all the time,'' said Doug Stern, spokesman for the Cincinnati Firefighter's Union. "I guess the only good thing is that it was a BB gun.''

Related :

Firefighters Hit With BB Gunfire

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