A Youngstown police officer involved in the fatal shooting of a suspect on the city's south side back in October of 2023.

The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigations (BCI) has confirmed with 21 News that a grand jury declined to indict officer Michael Lambert, who was involved in the fatal shooting of 45-year-old Ricco Acevedo. 

The shooting occurred on October 12, 2023 on the 4000 Block of Helena Avenue when officers received a call from the homeowner's mother reporting a burglary after she saw a male she did not recognize coming down the steps. That male was identified as Acevedo.

The call came in shortly after 9:00 a.m. The owner of the home, Ernesto Cuevas was incarcerated at the time of the incident.

According to the prosecutor's summary of the incident, Acevedo originally told officers he was doing work on the home. Police say Acevedo was also giving officers false information in order to avoid identifying himself.

The report states that once police told Acevedo they knew the information he gave was false, he fled into the home and allegedly said "I have a gun on me" multiple times.

The report goes on to say police repeatedly asked Acevedo to put the gun down with Acevedo repeatedly refusing and saying in part, "You're going to have to shoot me because I'm not going to jail."

Three shots were fired shortly before 10:00 a.m.

Body camera video from the incident shows Acevedo run away as police try to detain him stating that he has a gun on him while running up the stairs and responding "no" when officers ask him to put it down.

The video also shows officer Lambert trying to negotiate with Acevedo saying, "toss that f*****g gun down or this is going to end very badly for you" and Acevedo at one point saying, "You ever shoot somebody? Well, you're going to have to shoot me because I'm not going to jail."

However, the video does not show what Lambert saw before shooting Acevedo because he is not visible at this point in the video.

After Acevedo was shot, the report states that officers found an object on the floor not far from where Acevedo was laying. This object was initially believed to be a gun, but that turned out not to be the case.

An image of the object was included in the report and is pictured below.

 

A representative from Youngstown Police Department's union has issued the following statement to 21 News regarding the no-bill:

"The investigation went through the proper process ending with the grand jury who thoughtfully declined charges. I am grateful to work with veteran officers like Mike Lambert."

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