BUTLER — It started with a trip to the gas station for chewing tobacco. It ended with a police investigation.
Butler Mayor Wesley Dingus told police he was on his way to buy soda and tobacco at a nearby gas station when he saw Anthony Ward walking down the street near the village’s downtown on July 11.
At the time, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections (ODRC) Adult Parole Authority wanted Ward for a parole violation. The agency issued a warrant for Ward’s arrest.
Ward was detained by law enforcement the same day — after Dingus hit him twice with his vehicle. Ward is currently incarcerated at the Lorain Correctional Institution.
The Bellville Police Department handled the subsequent investigation, which concluded on July 18, and forwarded its findings to the Richland County Prosecutor’s Office for review.
No charges have been filed in the case as of Wednesday morning.
Bellville police Chief Jon Fletcher detailed the department’s findings during a press conference on July 21.
At the time, Fletcher said he did not have up-to-date knowledge of Ward’s medical status, but officers initially indicated he had a broken leg. Fletcher added Ward was sitting up and able to communicate with law enforcement officials while they were administering first aid.
Fletcher declined to speculate on Dingus’ motivations.
“I’m not here to determine if (Dingus) did it intentionally or unintentionally,” Fletcher said.
“We’re not doing any charges. We’re just simply providing a non-biased, factual report (to the Richland County Prosecutor’s Office).”
Richland Source submitted a public records request to the Bellville Police Department for video footage and any reports regarding the incident.
Body-worn camera footage, security footage and a 15-page incident report shed additional light on what happened that day — and the circumstances that led up to it.
The report included interviews with Dingus, Ward, Ward’s girlfriend, Ward’s grandmother, and Butler Police Chief Eric Winbigler.
It also included first-hand observations from Bellville police officers at the scene and eyewitness accounts from Dingus’ wife, and a cashier at the Duke and Duchess gas station and convenience store.
Butler mayor spoke with Ward’s girlfriend five days before his arrest
Five days before he hit Ward with his car, Dingus’s wife told him a woman was sitting on “the island” — a tiny bit of land near downtown Butler where three streets intersect.
The mayor told police he went down to the island to ask the woman if she was OK, to which she replied, “No, I’ve got to get back home.”
It was a hot day and as Dingus recalls, the woman had no water. Dingus said he returned home to pick up his wife and the two of them drove the woman back to her home in Knox County.
During that drive, the woman told the Dinguses about Ward — who had a warrant out for his arrest.
In his statements to police, Ward later identified the woman as his girlfriend. Richland Source is not publishing the woman’s name to protect her privacy.
Ward went to prison after being found guilty of sexual battery of a minor, a third degree felony, in 2021. He was released on parole in February, according to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections offender search.
After violating the terms of his parole, Ward was listed as an offender at-large on ODRC’s website with a notice: This individual should be considered dangerous and possibly armed. Do NOT attempt to apprehend this individual. Call your local law enforcement agency or 911.
Ward later told police he left a halfway house in Lebanon, Ohio, out of fear for his safety because residents and staff were pressuring him to sell drugs.
‘Is that him?’
On the day he was hit by a car, Ward’s girlfriend told police he was supposed to give her a ride home, but kept making excuses.
Finally, she got fed up and decided to walk. Ward followed her, urging her to come back and accept a ride.
Meanwhile, Dingus was on his way to the Duke and Duchess store. Dingus told police he saw the woman “half running” down the street with a man “half running” behind her.
“I get between the two and I asked (Ward’s girlfriend), ‘Is that him?'” Dingus recalled. “She said, ‘Yeah.'”
During an interview with police, Ward said he was confused when “some guy” pulled up in a red car and greeted him by name. Ward said he worried Dingus was “someone from his past out to get him.”
Ward eventually got into a black Chevy Traverse driven by his grandmother, Mary Hunter. Dingus followed Hunter’s car as she and Ward continued following Ward’s girlfriend.
“They were trying to get her to get back in their vehicle,” Dingus told police. “They went to her three times and kept turning around.”
Ward said he and his grandmother eventually gave up on offering his girlfriend a ride. So the two headed back to the Duke and Duchess to purchase cigarettes.
Meanwhile, Dingus contacted Butler Police Chief Eric Winbigler and told him he had spotted Ward and continued trailing the Hunter’s vehicle until the chief arrived.
During an interview with Bellville police, Ward’s girlfriend said she “doesn’t do violence” and “was not a victim at the hands of Ward.”
The officer noted the woman “did not provide many other details, seeming to not want to get anyone in trouble.”
Dingus told officers he was surprised to see her back in Butler.
“After last weekend’s experience, she thought she was going to die,” Dingus said.
“She was sitting out in the sun on Sunday (July 6) and it was 93 degrees. She didn’t have any water with her.”
Butler police chief: Taser malfunctioned during attempt to subdue Ward
Winbigler pulled into the gas station parking lot, turned on his cruiser lights and stepped out of the vehicle.
According to a police report, Winbigler attempted to transmit a message over his radio, but wasn’t able to due to radio traffic from the Richland County Sheriff’s Office.
The chief spoke briefly with Hunter, who confirmed her grandson was in her passenger seat.
Winbigler said he saw Ward lean forward. It appeared the man was attempting to hide and also reaching for something (later revealed to be a backpack).
The chief tried his radio again. No luck. He approached the passenger side of Hunter’s car, told Ward there was a warrant out for his arrest and demanded he exit the vehicle.
Winbigler said Ward “tried talking his way out of it,” then fled towards Elm Street on foot.
The chief said he reached for his taser, but wasn’t able to remove it from his holster due to an equipment malfunction. While he was attempting to extract his taser, he said he heard an engine revving.
Winbigler looked up and saw Dingus’ car “in the center of Elm Street appearing to corral Ward or stop his forward movement.”
The chief told Bellville police it seemed like Dingus was trying to cut off Ward’s escape route through the alley, not to hit him. He added that if Dingus wanted to run Ward over, he had “every opportunity,” but instead, the mayor drove ahead of him.
A cashier at the Duke and Duchess shared a similar opinion with police. The worker’s name was redacted from the incident report.
“(The cashier) stated the male (Wesley Dingus) in the red car appeared to be trying to block Ward’s escape path with his vehicle as Ward fled on foot from Chief Winbigler,” Tackett wrote in his report.
Dingus said he was not trying to stop Ward or hit him with his vehicle
Dingus’ vehicle collided with Ward twice.
According to the incident report, Dingus told officers Ward ran into his vehicle as he was attempting to flee Winbigler.
The second time, the mayor contended, was an accident.
“This gentleman (Ward) started running and I’m like, ‘I’m getting out of here before he grabs the officer’s gun or something,'” Dingus told police after the incident.
“All of a sudden, he darted towards me and I turned left. I think, ‘I’m going to come up through here,’ and he darts in front of me again,” Dingus said.
“It happened so fast, I didn’t know left or right, where to go,” he added.
In a follow-up interview, Dingus told police that he did not know Ward was fleeing Chief Winbigler until he was already pulling out on to Elm Street.
The mayor said he was not trying to corral or strike Ward with his vehicle — he was trying to get out of the way of oncoming traffic.
Ward had a different take.
He told police there was “no doubt in his mind” that Dingus was trying to run him over and he felt he was being targeted.
“This guy was trying to run me over, trying to kill me,” Ward stated, per an incident report.
Bellville police arrived to find Ward handcuffed, lying on the ground
Bellville police Sgt. Gregory Tackett and officer Matthew Corwin were already en route when Ward was struck by Dingus’ car.
The Bellville officers had heard Winbigler’s request for backup — though the details were minimal.
“I heard very garbled, unintelligible radio traffic from a voice I recognized as being Chief Winbigler,” Tackett wrote in a report.
“I am not certain what was attempted to have been transmitted, but I could hear an urgency in the tone of voice from Chief Winbigler’s radio traffic.”
After hearing heavy breathing, yelling and screaming in the background, Tackett said he and Corwin responded in emergency status, believing Winbigler may be in trouble or require immediate assistance.
The two officers arrived moments after Ward was hit. In his account of the events, Corwin wrote he arrived to find Ward lying on the ground on his right side with his hands handcuffed behind his back.
According to Corwin, Ward had an injury to the left side of his face and was “visibly in pain.” Ward’s pants were ripped near the thigh. His left shoe was off his foot, stuck underneath the rear passenger tire of Dingus’ vehicle.
Ward told officers he thought his leg was broken and apologized for fleeing from the chief. After officers helped Ward into a sitting position, Corwin wrote he observed Ward’s leg bone “sticking through the skin near his ankle on his left leg.”
Ward leaned on Tackett’s leg until an ambulance from the Worthington Township Fire Department arrived to transport him to the hospital.
Corwin and Tackett then began their investigation.
“You guys are going to have to take over this one, OK?” Winbigler told them. “I can’t do this one.”