Akron police officer resigns amid domestic violence probe, investigations into other incidents

An Akron police officer resigned in February amid three separate internal investigations, ending a 14-month tenure marked by violent incidents caught on video, outbursts against colleagues and bystanders and repeated policy violations, according to documents obtained by Signal Akron. 

Officer Samuel Putnam’s resignation came five weeks after a woman — also an Akron police officer, identified in police reports as his fiancée — called 911 in the early hours of Jan. 19. Putnam, she said, was drunk and behind the wheel of his pickup truck in their driveway, ramming the car she was in as she tried to block him from leaving amid a heated argument. 

She was trying to keep Putnam from driving drunk and was afraid for her safety, the incident report said.

He was drinking and angry, multiple records detail, after he became aware of an internal investigation of an on-duty incident a month prior. 

Putnam left his shift hours before it was over that night after he was asked to answer questions about a December incident in Ellet where he nearly hit bystanders with his cruiser and screamed at his fiancée (who was on duty and working the same shift) and her partner, who responded to the scene first. 

He also attempted to fight a man who complained about his behavior at the scene.

Putnam was also under investigation for an incident two weeks prior to the car-ramming incident, when he initiated a traffic stop for minor infractions, chased the car at speeds over 90 mph through Akron streets and repeatedly punched the driver in the head as he was being handcuffed, injuring and hospitalizing that driver. 

Putnam was not arrested for domestic violence or any other criminal charges stemming from the night of the 911 call to his house — two City of Akron lawyers, including the police legal adviser and another prosecutor, told the responding sergeants not to charge him, the incident report states. 

The city’s spokesperson denied Signal Akron’s request to speak with the attorneys about their decision and declined to comment on it.

The Akron Police Department treated the domestic violence call as an employment issue rather than a criminal one. 

Putnam was placed on paid administrative leave, and the Office of Professional Standards and Accountability (OPSA) — the APD’s internal affairs department — opened a probe into whether Putnam violated a policy requiring officers to obey all laws. 

A viral video last May also showed Putnam and his partner repeatedly punching a man in the face at an apartment complex. Signal Akron obtained documents showing the APD opened and closed other investigations that found him at fault in several other incidents.

Putnam resigned on Feb. 23, two days before he was scheduled to speak with an investigator about the domestic violence incident, three days before a scheduled disciplinary hearing about the high-speed vehicle pursuit and force that hospitalized the driver, and amid a probe of his actions at the incident in Ellet. 

The APD closed the book on all three investigations when he resigned. 

Putnam had four jobs as a police officer in less than six years

Putnam’s resignation from the APD marked the end of his fourth stop as a police officer in less than six years. State records show Putnam spent five days as an officer with the Milan Police Department, less than four months with the Ashland County Sheriff’s Office, and just over a year and a half with the Fostoria Police Department before joining the APD in December of 2024. 

No reason for Putnam’s 2020 departure from Milan is listed in the state database, while his 2022 departure from Ashland County and his 2024 departure from Fostoria are designated “Resignation – In good standing.” 

Fostoria’s police chief, in an email to Signal Akron, said, “Officer Putnam left our agency in good standing and informed us that he was moving due to a personal relationship he was involved in.”

OPSA records detail that Putnam told a department supervisor that “his dog is a service animal due to his PTSD from being stabbed twice and shot at” when he was an officer in Fostoria. The OPSA investigator could find no mention of those incidents in a background check and then called Fostoria’s police chief, who told him that “Putnam had not been stabbed” and that he could only remember “one incident where during a foot chase, a suspect’s weapon had been discharged, but he was not sure if Putnam was involved in that incident.”

State records show Putnam’s fiancée joined the APD in 2024, a few months before he did that December. She told police responding to the 911 call that they had been in a relationship since April 2024, which is months before Putnam left Fostoria. 

Putnam, after joining the APD, was trained on domestic violence law, critical thinking in use-of-force incidents, officer wellness, crisis intervention and other courses, according to state records. 

Shortly before joining the APD, he took an advanced 16-hour state-run course on drunk driving enforcement.

May 2025: Viral video captures Putnam punching man

Signal Akron first reported about Putnam in May of 2025, when he and his partner, Officer Truvonte Riley, were recorded pummeling a man who had tried to run away from them at an East Akron apartment complex.

Video showed the two officers tackling, using Tasers and repeatedly punching the man in the head as he was pinned to the ground. The video shows Putnam throwing at least four uppercut punches to the man’s face as he pins the man’s arms behind his back. 

Putnam was initially found to have violated the APD’s use-of-force policy, but the finding was later overruled by a supervisor in the training division, according to an internal investigation of another incident. 

June 2025: Putnam threatens detainee with pepper spray, yells at colleagues

When Putnam and his partner detained a man after a domestic violence call in June of 2025, the man “began kicking the backseat passenger door, claiming he couldn’t breathe and that it was too hot,” according to an internal report. 

In response, Putnam took out his OC spray — debilitating police-grade pepper spray that can cause intense burning of the eyes and breathing restrictions — and shook the canister. He opened the car’s back door, pointed the canister at the man’s face and screamed at him using “harsh language,” the report stated.

When his fiancée — also an officer on duty at the scene — and her partner attempted to “de-escalate the situation,” Putnam yelled at them to “get off me” and walked away. 

Department supervisors, including Chief Brian Harding, said in a report that Putnam lacked composure and violated an APD policy about “conduct toward the public.” Putnam was reprimanded in writing. 

July 2025: Putnam cuts off, fires Taser at man fleeing on moped

Four days after supervisors began probing the OC spray incident, Putnam and his partner attempted a traffic stop on a moped driven by a man who was not wearing a helmet and who did not pull over for the officers. 

Department supervisors said Putnam, who was driving, did not properly announce on the radio that they were chasing the moped and that they dangerously sped up from behind it to reposition their cruiser in front of the moped before slamming on the brakes. 

When the moped driver started to drive around the cruiser, the report says, Putnam got out of the car and fired a Taser at him. He missed, but APD supervisors, including Deputy Chief Jesse Leeser, criticized the attempt because the driver was not a threat — if the Taser had connected, the helmetless moped driver could have been seriously injured.

Departmental supervisors later determined that Putnam violated the department’s  vehicle pursuit and Taser policies.

Jan. 4: Police chase, violent arrest sends man to hospital

Earlier this year, internal reports detail that Putnam drove more than 90 mph through southwest Akron streets as he chased a man suspected of having an open warrant on a drug offense.

He crashed into the man’s car, then repeatedly punched him as he was handcuffed. The traffic chase began after Putnam “witnessed the suspect make minor traffic infractions.” 

The force Putnam used entailed six punches to the right side of the man’s face, according to a diagram in an internal report, after the man “tensed up” as he was being handcuffed. The injuries he sustained required him to be hospitalized and then transferred to another hospital for “specialized treatment.”

APD supervisors again found that Putnam violated the APD’s vehicle pursuit policy and its use-of-force policy.

December 2025: Putnam nearly hits bystanders, yells at fiancée in Ellet

Less than two weeks after the Jan. 4 incident, APD supervisors became aware of a December incident involving Putnam and began investigating the officer’s response to that call on South Canton Road in Akron’s Ellet neighborhood. 

Internal reports indicate that Putnam’s fiancée and her partner responded to a fight where a firearm could reportedly have been involved. The pair separated the parties, took statements, and an officer requested another unit to help at the scene. 

The officer soon “advised the units en-route to slow down. Less than a minute later,” Putnam pulled up in his cruiser. Supervisors reviewed police cameras that showed that Putnam drove 69 mph through streets with 25 mph limits. APD investigators said this was far faster than allowed without permission. 

Cameras showed that, when Putnam arrived, “several people from one side of the dispute began yelling profanities and running as if the cruiser was about to hit them.”

Putnam rapidly exited his car and “immediately started to yell and scream obscenities” at an officer — supervisors would later learn it was Putnam’s fiancée.  

“If you’re asking for a fucking forty-two, say you need a forty-two or another unit,” yelled Putnam, according to an internal report. A “42” is code for backup, typically used in non-emergency scenarios.

“That’s excessive, that’s bullshit,” a bystander yelled about Putnam’s driving. “You just about killed somebody.”

Putnam’s fiancée, the report says, “attempted to calm the citizens down” while her partner attempted to explain to Putnam what was going on at the scene and why they didn’t give more information over the radio. 

A bystander can be heard saying, “That’s why this city is so fucked up,” according to a supervisor’s report, “which prompted Officer Putnam to begin to scream at the citizen.” 

An internal affairs report states that Putnam began yelling, “Nobody’s talking to you!”

“Fuck you,” the man responded. 

Putnam stepped toward the man.

“You want to fucking go with me?” Putnam yelled back as other officers restrained him. He spent the rest of the time at the scene, the internal affairs report says, “off to the side, away from citizens and speaking with other officers.” 

The man “was upset and demanded Putnam’s badge number several times” from the officer who had been attempting to calm him down — Putnam’s fiancée. She never gave it to him, and defended Putnam instead, saying he hadn’t done anything wrong.

Jan. 18: Putnam ordered to answer questions about his conduct in Ellet

On Jan. 18, “Officer Putnam was ordered to type a response” to questions about the incident in Ellet, an internal affairs report says. 

In a letter dated that day, Putnam said he drove safely to the scene and that when he arrived, he simply “voiced my concern” to the officers already on the scene about the lack of information provided to him. The interaction with the man was because he yelled first, Putnam wrote.

“The altercation stemmed from the male subject yelling at me while I was talking to another officer, I stated to him that no one was talking to him,” Putnam wrote. “At that point the male took an aggressive posture and was held back by his friend and Ofc. [his fiancée], in turn I reacted. In reflection I realized that my reaction to the situation could have been in a more professional manner.” 

An internal affairs investigator learned about Putnam’s romantic relationship and declared “this may be a factor that contributed to his behavior.”

The police officer who frequently worked as the partner of Putnam’s fiancée later told investigators that Putnam directed his fiancée not to respond to calls that may be dangerous without more officers accompanying them, and that Putnam had yelled at them in previous incidents. 

Jan 19: Domestic violence call after Putnam’s ‘hard day at work’

The same day supervisors demanded Putnam answer questions about the incident where he yelled at his fiancée and threatened to fight a bystander, multiple reports detail that Putnam left his 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. shift roughly four hours early and started drinking alcohol. 

His fiancée later told investigators he was upset about the probe into the incident. 

From his home, the reports say, Putnam began texting his fiancée that he had been drinking. She “requested” he stop — he was her ride home, she reminded him.

“When Putnam arrived to the parking deck to pick her up, [she] stated she could tell he was intoxicated,” the incident report says. “They got into a brief argument before [she] told Putnam she was going to drive the vehicle home.”

At home, they continued arguing. His fiancée “stated she tried to listen and help him but she was unable to due to the way Putnam was acting,” the report says. She said she was going to bed, but “Putnam began to put clothes on as if he were going to leave.” She adamantly objected to him leaving, she said, because he was drunk. 

But Putnam grabbed the keys to his silver Ford F-150 pickup truck, which was parked in their driveway. Blocking it in was a Ford Escape. She got in the Escape, hoping to stop him from leaving and driving drunk. 

Putnam began ramming the Escape with his fiancée inside, the report says, hitting it three times as his fiancée called 911. 

“Putnam stated he got into his truck and moved forward so he could push the Escape into the road and out of his way,” the incident report says. “Putnam explained that both of the vehicles were owned by him, therefore it did not matter if he caused any damage to them. He kept reiterating to officers that he told her to move and she would not.” 

When three Akron police sergeants responded to the woman’s 911 call around 2:30 a.m., Putnam “came out of the house holding a beer in his hand and stated that he had a hard day at work so he left early, at which time he started to drink at home.” 

The incident report indicates charges under consideration were “domestic violence/menace” and “domestic violence.”

Putnam was not arrested.

The incident report indicates that sergeants at the scene contacted two City of Akron prosecutors — Dave McNeill, who the report says is the city’s police legal adviser, and Jessica Connell, the city’s domestic violence prosecutor — and “they declined to pursue charges at this time.” 

Putnam’s fiancée, the report says, “left the residence to separate for the night.”

APD: No special treatment for Putnam

Lt. Michael Murphy, spokesperson for the APD, told Signal Akron the department does not have a policy about responding to calls involving off-duty officers and they “respond to and handle them as we would any other call for service.”

Murphy said Putnam was not given favorable treatment that night because he was a police officer and that responding sergeants “routinely consult with the police legal advisor prior to making the decision on whether to arrest or not to arrest. This is not limited to domestic related incidents but occurs on various types of calls.”

When asked about the frequency of responding officers deferring arrest decisions to city prosecutors, Murphy said the city would be in a better position to answer that. 

The City of Akron’s spokesperson declined Signal Akron’s request to interview the prosecutors about why Putnam was not detained that night and whether Putnam’s status as a police officer factored into the decision not to charge him with a crime.

“Your questions touch on confidential legal advice and legal analysis,” Stephanie Marsh said in an email. “As such, we aren’t going to provide any interviews or comment on this.”

Putnam placed on leave

While Putnam was not arrested or charged for the car-ramming incident in the early hours of Jan. 19, records show that Harding, the police chief, put him on administrative leave on Jan. 20. The lieutenant in the OPSA who was investigating the officer drove to Putnam and his fiancée’s house that day to deliver the leave notice — both of them were inside. 

Two weeks later, the OPSA investigator questioned Putnam’s fiancee about her role in the December incident in Ellet — she was later reprimanded for discourtesy for refusing to provide Putnam’s badge number to the man he threatened and “instead spent minutes denying that Officer Putnam did anything wrong and justifying his actions.” 

During the interview, the female officer defended Putnam in the wake of the domestic violence allegations. 

“I asked several questions about rumors I had heard of things she had stated which indicated that she was a victim of domestic violence and that Officer Putnam may be violent,” the investigator wrote. 

“She denied that Officer Putnam had ever struck her. She denied that she had concerns he would hurt her when she returned to the house the next day to retrieve property. She was provided with resources including Ease at Work and Victim’s Assistance.”

Putnam resigns

On Feb. 23, Putnam submitted a typed boilerplate resignation letter. 

“My last day of work will be March 9, 2026,” his letter concluded. A blue pen drew a line through March 9, and wrote in “FEBRUARY 23” beneath it.

Putnam’s tenure with the APD was officially over, closing the book on the three internal investigations.