Ware was recognized by the Police Officers Association of Michigan at its annual convention in Grand Rapids. 4, 2021, car chase and shootout in Woodland. Scott Ware with the Barry County Sheriff’s Department received the 2022 Police Officer of the Year Award for his actions during an Aug. Leiter is being held on a $10,000 bond in the Barry County Jail. The girlfriend escaped without injury, and no one else was hurt in the incident. Then at the jail, Leiter continued to resist corrections officers and had to be placed in a restraint chair, according to the sheriff’s department report. Leiter became more resistant and had to be brought down to the ground and held down.” Once in the patrol vehicle, Leiter kicked at the windows in the vehicle. Leiter had to be pushed towards the patrol vehicles. “After standing him up and trying to escort him to a patrol vehicle, he began resisting. “Members of the SRT were able to quickly control of Leiter and handcuff him to the rear ,” the sheriff’s department report said. The Barry County Sheriff’s Department Special Response Team was called to assist. When troopers arrived, Leiter initially refused to exit the RV, and officers surrounded the vehicle. Prior to troopers arriving, Leiter threatened people at the campground and started “shooting rounds into the air from a handgun he had pulled out of a backpack,” the Barry County Sheriff’s Department reported. Michigan State Police received a report of a domestic dispute involving the suspect and his girlfriend.

Leiter is charged with three counts of felonious assault and one count of reckless use of a weapon in connection with the May 16 incident at the campground on Welcome Road, north of the city of Hastings. A conference had been scheduled for last week but was adjourned, court officials said. Trevor Dean Leiter is scheduled to appear for a probable-cause conference June 15 in District Court 56B. A new court date has been set for a 24-year-old Battle Creek man accused of threatening campers at the Welcome Woods campground in Carlton Township last month.

Santa Viking by Sandra Hill