WKYC is learning more about Martin Robinson, the former corrections officer who is now accused of shooting and critically injuring an Amherst police officer during a SWAT standoff Thursday night.
Court records show that in 2009, while Robinson was still working as a corrections officer at Northeast Reintegration Center, he and two other uniformed personnel were guarding a broken fence when two plainclothes Cleveland police officers pulled up in a police cruiser. Robinson and his colleagues apparently did not realize the two were cops, and ordered them to leave.
The original lawsuit further stated that, after Robinson reached for his gun, one of the officers tackled him to the ground and handcuffed him. Robinson alleged that he suffered from both physical injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the incident.
WKYC has also learned that the two Cleveland detectives who apprehended Robinson are Michael Demchak and Erin O'Donnell. Both were later involved in the infamous 2012 police chase that saw 137 shots fired at unarmed suspects Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams, both of whom were killed. Demchak retired from the force, while O'Donnell was fired, before she and four other officers were reinstated last year. No officers were found guilty of criminal wrongdoing.
The case involving Robinson went all the way to federal court, and the city later settled with Robinson in 2012 for $900,000, his then-attorney Terry Gilbert confirms.
Robinson, 39, was arrested early Friday morning after a 12-hour standoff with the Lorain County SWAT Team. Authorities had been trying to execute an outstanding warrant for weapons violations at Robinson's Ferndale Ave. home.
During the standoff, officials say Robinson shot Officer Patrolman Eugene Ptacek, a 17-year veteran of the Amherst Police Department. Ptacek was airlifted to MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland, where he remains in critical condition.
Robinson himself was shot several times, but received non-life-threatening injuries.