COLERAIN TWP. — Minutes before a man attacked police with a sharpened martial arts pole, the suspect's father warned a family argument might turn violent.

        Charles Searcy called 911 late Wednesday afternoon in the middle of an argument with his 29-year-old son, Christopher.

Searcy

        When the 911 operator asked whether the family argument might escalate to violence, Charles Searcy said: “It might get that way.”

        Minutes later it did as two Colerain Township police officers entered the Searcy home in the 9000 block of Loralinda Drive.

        As they climbed a narrow staircase in the home, police said Christopher Searcy swung a 4 1/2-foot martial arts pole and barely missed the skull of Officer Michael Owens.

        Officer Owens fell backward down the stairs past his partner — Sgt. Clyde Banks Jr. — and, police said, Mr. Searcy was preparing to stab the sharpened, 2 1/2-inch-thick pole at Sgt. Banks.

        Sgt. Banks drew his gun and fired a single shot into Mr. Searcy's abdomen, a preliminary police report on the shooting said.

        Mr. Searcy, who was living at the Loralinda address but not as a permanent resident, was in fair condition Thursday at University Hospital. He has been charged with two counts of felonious assault on the police officers and one count of domestic violence against his father.

        Township Police Chief Ed Phillips cited the Hamilton County sheriff's investigation of the shooting in declining to discuss the shooting in detail.

        “But my preliminary view of the situation causes me to have confidence in the officer's action,” he said of Sgt. Banks, a 12-year veteran of the Colerain department.

        Sgt. Banks, 42, declined to comment on the shooting or the investigation. Both Sgt. Banks and Officer Owens, who also declined to comment, are on administrative leave during the investigation.

        Mr. Searcy, who is listed on the Hamilton County sheriff's sex offender Web site as a “sexually oriented offender,” remains in custody while hospitalized.

        Chief Phillips said the police shooting is the first in at least 14 years in Colerain Township.

        On Tuesday, Cincinnati police shot and critically wounded Christian Johnson, who they said is one of two suspects they were pursuing after the robbery of a Roselawn bank. The other suspect remains at large.

        On Nov. 7, Roger Owensby of College Hill, stopped by officers who suspected him in a previous crime, died of what the coroner called “mechanical asphyxia” after a struggle with five officers.

        A day later, Jeffrey Irons of Chicago, a shoplifting suspect, was shot and killed by police after a struggle in which Mr. Irons grabbed an officer's gun and shot another officer in the hand.

        On Sept. 1 Cincinnati Police Officer Kevin Crayon, being dragged by a car driven by 12-year-old Courtney Mathis, shot and killed the driver before falling to his own death.

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