Correction:
This story has been updated to reflect the earlier incident that Officer Caleb Bodjanac was disciplined for took place at a North Hill store, not a bar.
One day before Akron Police Officer Caleb Bodjanac fired 15 shots at an unarmed man who had been kicked out of an Ellet bar, the city’s independent police auditor filed a report that detailed how the officer had been disciplined by Akron Police Department leadership for his forceful response to an unarmed man who had been kicked out of a North Hill store, Bill’s Place, earlier this year.
Independent Police Auditor Anthony Finnell said Bodjanac’s and his partner’s response in that incident “contravenes established constitutional norms.”
The report about the March 2025 incident states that supervisors deemed Bodjanac’s “rear body-lock takedown” of the man to be within department policy, but Bodjanac had been reprimanded at the direction of a deputy chief for poor judgment, failure to de-escalate and other policy violations in the lead-up to the encounter with a man reported to have schizophrenia.
APD supervisors said Bodjanac and his partner that night, Dylan Carmany, had “failed to gather essential information” prior to confronting and using force on the man, the report said, violating a department policy on maintaining “sufficient competency to properly perform their duties and assume the responsibilities of their position.”
Finnell detailed that the department found that Carmany’s four initial punches to the passively resistant man’s head were not objectively reasonable, but that Bodjanac’s takedown was within policy. Finnell generally agreed with the department but said all punches by Carmany were unconstitutional.
Finnell finished his review of the internal APD investigation on Nov. 10 — it was approved by the Citizens’ Police Oversight Board at its Nov. 19 meeting. Wednesday night was the second consecutive meeting, and the third overall, that included a use-of-force investigation involving Bodjanac that was reviewed by Finnell. Signal Akron submitted a public records request for all of Bodjanac’s use-of-force reports with the department.
The day after Finnell’s Nov. 10 report was filed, a bartender at Karam’s Lounge made a panicked 911 call to report a man named Corey Phillips had been kicked out and was threatening to shoot people. She claimed he had a 9mm handgun, though a man on the call can be heard saying Phillips didn’t have a gun. Minutes later, Bodjanac pulled up to the scene and shot Phillips multiple times, discovering later that he was unarmed. Phillips, who was shot in the chest, survived.
The City of Akron has not publicly released Bodjanac’s name as Phillips’ shooter, but Signal Akron independently confirmed it the day after the shooting and obtained the department’s only paid leave notice issued since the shooting — an automatic action taken while police shootings are investigated — which was sent to Bodjanac.
Bodjanac involved in other use-of-force incidents
Last month, Finnell agreed with APD’s finding that Bodjanac acted reasonably and legally when he initiated a turn-signal-based traffic stop that led to a man fleeing on foot and Bodjanac’s partner using a Taser.
In June, Finnell issued a report detailing that Bodjanac kneed a man in the head, and that Carmany repeatedly punched the man in the head, as they detained a man in an apparent mental health crisis. Finnell took greater issue with Carmany’s force and professionalism but criticized both officers for their failure to de-escalate the encounter. They didn’t attempt to “slow down” the encounter, involve the crisis intervention team, or use other tactics, “despite signs of behavioral health crisis,” he wrote.
“Officers’ immediate shift from verbal to physical control raises concern,” Finnell wrote. “… Greater adherence to de-escalation and more cautious use of high-risk force options are essential for ensuring both public trust and officer safety.”
Bodjanac was also mentioned in a report filed by Finnell in August after the officer pulled a woman out of her Jeep during a June traffic stop for refusing to quickly get out of the car. Finnell said the encounter was “likely” constitutional, but “the spirit of de-escalation policy was not fully realized” and “the handling of the encounter demonstrated missed opportunities for de-escalation and proportionality, which are central to constitutional policing and building community trust.”
Records obtained by Signal Akron detail that Bodjanac was hired by the APD in December 2024, three and a half years after he first became an officer with the Canton Police Department. Audio from the May 2022 Canton Civil Service Commission meeting details that Bodjanac briefly left the department that year to become an agent with U.S. Customs and Border Protection. A lieutenant in CPD’s internal affairs division told Signal Akron last week that Bodjanac had seven use-of-force cases in Canton — and none were found to be a violation of policy.
State training records show that since becoming a police officer in 2021, Bodjanac has completed courses such as:
- “Use of Deadly Force and Legal Guidelines”
- “BCI Lethal Use of Force and OIS Investigations” (The APD outsources its officer-involved shooting investigations to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation.)
- “Responding to Mental Health Issues.”
Neither Bodjanac’s name nor his connection to the shooting outside of Karam’s Lounge on Nov. 12 were mentioned during the Wednesday night CPOB meeting.