An Akron police officer is on paid administrative leave after shooting a man who had been kicked out of an Ellet bar shortly after 9 p.m. on Tuesday. Signal Akron found the bar’s fence riddled with what appeared to be at least a dozen bullet holes, but it is unclear how many times police shot at the man. The man shot by police has not been accused by authorities of firing, or possessing, a gun.
Police said the man was treated by paramedics. He was then “transported to a local hospital with serious injuries,” according to the Akron Police Department in a statement released Wednesday afternoon.
In a late night Facebook post, the union representing Akron police officers, Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 7, stated that the man had been threatening people with a “semi-automatic handgun” and police were “forced to make a split-second decision” to shoot the “uncooperative” man when they showed up.
The city and police department do not identify officers involved in shootings, but Signal Akron confirmed that the shooter is 31-year-old Caleb Bodjanac, 31, who joined the APD in December of 2024 after 3 1/2 years as an officer with the Canton Police Department.
Bodjanac has been involved with at least three use-of-force incidents since joining the department 11 months ago, though he was not personally found by the department to have violated policy in those instances. According to a lieutenant in the internal affairs division of the Canton Police Department, Bodjanac was involved in seven use-of-force incidents, was the subject of one external complaint, and had no discipline history there.
Signal Akron also confirmed the identity of the man Bodjanac shot on Tuesday night outside Karam’s Lounge. He is a 36-year-old man identified as white in other court records — Signal Akron is withholding his name until it is confirmed his family has been notified.
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As of Wednesday afternoon, there is no indication Bodjanac saw a gun, and no gun was recovered from the scene.
The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, the law enforcement arm of the Ohio Attorney General’s office, was on the scene shortly after the shooting and is conducting what is supposed to be an investigation separate from the Akron Police Department, per department policy.
A nearby business owner told Signal Akron on Wednesday morning that the man was verbally threatening to shoot people and made a “finger gun” motion to the employees at their business after he was kicked out of Karam’s Lounge for fighting, but he was not seen by witnesses with an actual gun in his hand. The business owner heard a quick barrage of gunshots shortly after 9 p.m. — Akron Police indicated in a statement that only the officer fired a gun.
Signal Akron arrived at the scene on Wednesday morning and found bloody wound dressings, discarded latex gloves and other abandoned first aid supplies on a small patch of grass next to the bar alongside Albrecht Avenue.
The bar’s fence — cordoning off a patio with tables and seats for the bar’s patrons — was riddled with at least a dozen bullet holes. One cluster of holes was on the north-facing side of the fence running parallel to the street, a few feet from where the man was shot. Another cluster of holes was on the fence’s east-facing side adjacent to an alley, roughly 15 yards away. Several holes on both sections of the white fence were tagged with tape-measure stickers typically used by forensic investigators to document evidence in photographs.
Some questions may be answered within the next week, since city law dictates officer-worn body camera footage must be “promptly” disclosed after serious use-of-force incidents, though, as in the Jazmir Tucker case, officers don’t always turn their cameras on.