Columbus police arrested a driver after he was accused of crashing into a vehicle and a cemetery fence Wednesday morning.
Officers were sent to the accident at 9:40 a.m. near State Street and Central Avenue, said Lt. Matt Harris, Columbus Police Department spokesman.
A suspect, later identified as Nicholas Marino, 33, Athens, Ohio, had fled the scene of the vehicle accident and then crashed into a fence at Garland Brook Cemetery a short time later, Harris said.
Officers located the vehicle and made contact with Marino, who police said was uncooperative and attempted to kick one of the investigators, Harris said.
Marino was transported to Columbus Regional Hospital where he refused to submit to a blood draw, Harris said. A warrant for a blood draw was completed and later approved by a local judge. While at the hospital, Marino continued to be belligerent and assaulted a CPD officer who was not injured, Harris said.
After the blood draw was obtained and Marino was discharged from the hospital, he was taken to the Bartholomew County Jail on preliminary charges of leaving the scene of a property-damage accident (two counts), resisting law enforcement, battery on a law enforcement officer and operating a vehicle while intoxicated-endangerment.
For more on this story, see Friday’s Republic.
