MONTGOMERY TOWNSHIP — Ashland County Sheriff’s deputies arrested a man Friday morning following an hours-long standoff after finding him hiding inside a barrel in his home along Township Road 523.
Leslie Acker, 52, will likely face a domestic violence charge, authorities with the Ashland County Sheriff’s Office said Friday morning.
Deputies declined to identify a victim or describe the alleged violence.
Deputies arrived at the scene, a house on the 1300 block of Township Road 523, around 6:45 a.m., chief deputy David Blake said.
“We understood he was in the house, where the domestic occurred. We talked to his girlfriend, and we assumed he was there since his car’s there,” Blake said.
Officers eventually found Acker hiding in a barrel-like canister inside the house around 11 a.m.
Authorities said Acker was holding the lid shut with a vice-grip tool when they found him.
In the hours between 7 and 11 a.m., Blake said deputies tried to make contact with Acker, to no avail. Blake said investigators then obtained a search warrant to go inside the house, where they did not find him.
Deputies then received a tip that a man was seen walking near the woods, so authorities began searching nearby woods and used a drone to aid in the search.
Acker had not yet been charged with anything related to Friday morning’s incident as of 12:15 p.m. Friday.
