Couple assaulted while walking on Richland B&O Trail; suspect arrested

Mansfield police officers quickly apprehended a suspect accused of assaulting an elderly couple who were walking on the Richland B&O Trail in the 1300 block of Millsboro Road around 10:30 a.m. Monday.

Jason Bammann, assistant Mansfield police chief, said the elderly woman was punched in the face and her husband suffered a broken arm. The suspect, Jerald Adkins, 48, of Mansfield, is being charged with two counts of felonious assault. He was on a bicycle.

Mansfield firefighters/emergency medical technicians were preparing to transport the elderly man by squad to OhioHealth Mansfield Hospital when the News Journal arrived at Millsboro Road at the bike trail parking lot and spoke with the couple's son.

The couple, who are originally from Albania, told police the suspect assaulted them. A police report released Tuesday said the victims told police the suspect approached them asking for money.

At the scene, the couple's son confirmed his parents had been assaulted as he rushed to get into a vehicle to drive his mother, 57, to the hospital to see her husband, 60. Due to Ohio House Bill 343, also known as Marsy's Law, the victims' identities are not being released by police.

"It's still being investigated if this was a robbery," Bammann said. "The suspect may have known the couple."

A caller to the city's 911 communications center, who assisted the couple, said they could hear the man in the woods and saw officers in a cruiser on the trail soon after the assault. The suspect dropped a couple bags he had with him, the caller said. She sat with the couple on a bench at Millsboro Road until police and the emergency squad arrived.

The caller told a dispatcher the elderly man's arm was bleeding, his nose was bleeding, his glasses were broken and he needed an ambulance, according to the 911 tape obtained via a public records request.

The assailant "beat them up pretty good. He might need an ambulance," the caller said. "I saw him run up ... and he knocked them to the ground.... He's headed toward Park Avenue West on the bike trail."

The Good Samaritan told the 911 dispatcher the location of the alleged suspect and stayed on the telephone, describing the suspect's appearance and location as she walked. The suspect was wearing a red, white and blue plaid shirt, the female witness said.

Mansfield police officers soon had the suspect in handcuffs in the rear of a cruiser behind Westside Restaurant, 1090 Park Avenue West. His white bicycle was parked behind the cruiser.

Jason Larson, who heads the Richland County Park District, which oversees the bike trail and Gorman Nature Center, Monday said the bike trail does not currently have any cameras but it is something that is being considered.

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