In the 11 months between joining the Akron Police Department and shooting an unarmed man who had been kicked out of an Ellet bar last month, Officer Caleb Bodjanac was involved in at least 13 use-of-force incidents, according to documents obtained by Signal Akron.
A lieutenant in the Canton Police Department previously told Signal Akron that Bodjanac was involved in seven use-of-force incidents in that department, where he spent more than three years prior to joining the APD. He also spent a brief period of time pursuing a job with the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, according to the Canton Civil Service Commission.
Bodjanac eclipsed his three years of use-of-force incidents in Canton in his first three months as an Akron police officer. And he doubled his Canton total in less than a year.
In all but one of the eight initial incidents during his first three months with APD, Bodjanac was partnered with Officer Dylan Carmany, one of the the eight Akron police officers that Signal Akron independently confirmed shot at Jayland Walker. In two of Bodjanac’s use-of-force cases, he was working with Officer Judd Bishop, another officer who fired at Walker.
Walker’s high profile 2022 killing led to no indictments and no departmental discipline for any of the officers who shot him, but it did lead to widespread protests throughout the city, mass arrests, and a $4.8 million civil rights lawsuit settlement between Walker’s family and the City of Akron.
Karam’s Lounge shooting on Nov. 12 in Ellet
On the evening of Nov. 12, Bodjanac shot at 36-year-old Corey Phillips 15 times, striking him eight times, according to Phillips’ sister, shortly after pulling up to Karam’s Lounge on Albrecht Avenue in Akron’s Ellet neighborhood.
A bartender had frantically called police to report that Phillips had a gun and threatened a shooting after he was kicked out, but officers never located a firearm on him or at the scene.
Phillips, an electrician and father of six children, survived the shooting and is recovering in a local hospital after multiple emergency surgeries on his liver, intestines and arm, according to a GoFundMe medical bills fundraiser organized by his sister.
Bodjanac is on paid leave as the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation investigates the shooting, per department policy.
Bodjanac reprimanded for his response to a similar call in March
Bodjanac and Carmany were reprimanded by APD leadership for their response to a March 31 call similar to the call Bodjanac fielded the night he shot Corey Phillips, Signal Akron reported last month.
Responding to a report from a North Hill store owner at Bill’s Place on North Main Street about a homeless man who had been supposedly harassing patrons, the pair tracked the man down after he had already left the store and was walking away. Someone at the scene reported that the man suffered from schizophrenia.
Bodjanac conducted what he said was a “rear body lock takedown” of the man after he didn’t show ID and “balled” his fists while walking away. Carmany repeatedly punched him in the head while they tried to handcuff him.
Disciplinary records obtained by Signal Akron show that Bodjanac was given a written reprimand by department leadership because he “failed to ask basic questions to determine what crime, if any, had been committed.” That violated an APD policy requiring officers to “maintain sufficient competency to perform their duties and the responsibilities of their position.”
Bodjanac filed a written rebuttal, claiming he didn’t hear the mention that the man had schizophrenia but that “his mental state would not have changed” the response. He said he was “crisis intervention team” certified as a Canton Police officer.
He said he approached the man because the store owners wanted him banned: “I wanted to solve the issue for the property owners and to do what was needed to make contact with the male,” so gathering more information at the scene prior to engaging with him “risked not being able to find the male.”
The incident at the North Hill store on March 31 was his third use-of-force incident within a week — each while partnered with Carmany — and seventh overall case.
Here are the use-of-force incidents reported by Officer Caleb Bodjanac
Dec. 23, 2024 — Pauline Avenue in Ellet
His first use-of-force incident as an Akron police officer came three days after he started, when a group of five officers tackled and detained a reportedly intoxicated man for refusing to go to the hospital after falling down a flight of stairs.
Jan. 14 — Cross Street downtown
The next month, in January, Bodjanac and Carmany responded to a local mental health facility and used a controversial “WRAP” restraint procedure on a woman other officers were trying to “pink slip” — involuntarily hospitalize — for allegedly threatening to stab people with a pen.
Bodjanac wrote he “chased” the woman“ across the room and “shoved my body into hers, pressing her into a corner” before he and other officers took her to the ground and handcuffed her.
Jan. 15 — East Tallmadge Avenue in North Hill
The next day, he and Carmany, in their cruiser, conducted a traffic stop on a bicyclist for not having a rear red light. Bodjanac wrote that, while they were checking the man’s name for open warrants, he took off running. During a foot pursuit, Carmany fired his Taser, but it didn’t work. The officer eventually tackled him but then lost his grip. Bodjanac also fired his Taser at the man, connecting with his back, but he wrote it was ineffective. The man escaped.
Feb. 3 — East Tallmadge Avenue in North Hill
Two weeks later, Bodjanac and Carmany, in their cruiser, stopped a man for walking on the side of the street, claiming they did so to determine if he needed help. When the officers got out of their car, Bodjanac wrote, the man “approached in an aggressive manner with his hands still clutching his waistband,” allegedly said “fuck 12” — an anti-police slogan — and “kill me” and declined to identify himself.
Bodjanac said he put his hands on the man “to stop him from attempting to leave,” but the man “swung his left arm back toward me, tensing and pulling his body from me.” The man was “taken to the ground” by both officers. Bodjanac wrote that the man was resisting and he “attempted to use an arm bar technique” on the man’s left arm. Bodjanac wrote he then “struck [the man] multiple times in the left side with my right knee” and then used his Taser on the man twice — first for three seconds and then for five seconds — before they were able to handcuff him.
March 1 — Albrecht Avenue in Ellet
In March, Bodjanac and Carmany responded to an apparantly suicidal man accused of also threatening to kill family members. The officers found the man in his neighborhood, they wrote, and said he “had his left hand inside his jacket pocket.” Bodjanac drew his gun and other officers yelled at the man to show his hand, he wrote. Approaching the man, Bodjanac wrote that he shoved him into a fence, put away his gun, and Carmany “took [him] to the ground.”
Bodjanac wrote that he then “struck [the man] in the face one time as officers were trying to roll him to his stomach” and then “struck him one time in the left side with my knee and held his head to the ground.”
March 25 — South Canton Road in Ellet
One week before the March 31 bar incident, Bodjanac and Carmany were dispatched to a Walgreens for “a female acting irate and throwing items at people and vehicles.” On their way, they found other officers “struggling” with the woman on the ground. Bodjanac wrote he walked up, helped hold the woman down, and deployed both his Taser and stun gun on her.
March 26 — Brittain Road in Goodyear Heights
The next day, Bodjanac and Carmany conducted a traffic stop on a man for two unspecified traffic violations. As they approached the car, the officer said he saw the driver “reaching around” inside. Bodjanac opened the car door, ordered him out and said he then “pulled” him out for being uncooperative.
The two partners “pulled” him to the ground and Bodjanac “twisted his left arm behind him” before they handcuffed him. The man “complained of injury and EMS advised of abnormal vitals.”
April 22 — Whitepine Drive in the Merriman Valley
In April, Bodjanac and Carmany were among a group of officers responding to what Bodjanac wrote was an “armed and barricaded female” who “had been described by the caller as acting out of her mind.” Officers believed both that the woman was in a closet in her house with a screwdriver and that she had attacked the person who called police.
As the woman was apparently screaming and partially “hiding,” one officer had a gun on her while another, at Bodjanac’s order, fired his Taser, sending her to the ground.
The April incident was the last use-of-force case where Bodjanac was Carmany’s partner.
June 8 — Murray Avenue in North Hill
Bodjanac, now partnered with Judd Bishop, writes that they were in their cruiser and were dispatched to a house for a “suspicious person yelling and banging” on a residential door. Pulling up to the scene, they spotted a man who was walking in the street while holding a tequila bottle and yelling at the officers.
The man yelled for officers to get away from him when they attempted to speak with him, Bodjanac wrote, before he “aggressively turned and stepped toward officers in a threatening manner and balled his right hand into a fist” and then began “walking backwards away.”
Bodjanac reported the man “lunged” again while ignoring commands. Bishop used his Taser on the man. Bodjanac isn’t specific in this instance about what he did other than handcuffing the man, but he checked a box on the form indicating he engaged in “grappling” with him.
June 23 — Mercer Avenue in Sherbondy Hill
Bodjanac and his partner reported “locating a vehicle with the registered owner showing several active warrants” and said they believed the woman driving it was that owner, so they conducted a traffic stop.
The woman “became uncooperative when told she needed to exit the vehicle and was going to be placed in handcuffs until her warrants could be confirmed.” The woman, he wrote, didn’t comply, telling officers to not touch her. Bodjanac handcuffed one of her arms and dragged her out of the car.
Independent Police Auditor Anthony Finnell said in a report that “the handling of the encounter demonstrated missed opportunities for de-escalation and proportionality, which are central to constitutional policing and building community trust.”
Aug. 18 — Cuyahoga Street in North Hill
The 56-day gap from June to August is the longest stretch between use-of-force incidents for Bodjanac since he was hired by the APD.
Bodjanac reported responding to an apartment building about a wheelchair-bound man reporting he had been kicked out of his apartment by three men and a woman. Bodjanac and other officers, he said, spotted a man with a face covering coming from the apartment. The man reportedly ignored demands to identify himself before walking away and then taking off running.
Bodjanac chased him across a busy street, he said, and threatened to use his Taser on him. In a “grassy area,” the officer reports using his Taser twice, which allowed him to be handcuffed.
Sept. 8 — Yale Street in Summit Lake
Similar to January, Bodjanac and his partner initiated a traffic stop on a bicyclist accused of not having lights.
He and his partner “activated overhead lights and sirens to conduct a traffic stop” on the bicyclist, who reportedly fled through residential yards. Bodjanac eventually found him running away and demanded he stop. He tackled the cyclist when he didn’t “to prevent him from fleeing.”
The man “fell to his back as we went to the ground,” and Bodjanac wrote that he rolled him over and handcuffed him before the bicyclist “was complaining of injury and stating he was having trouble breathing.”
