[Content warning: Footage featured in the player above may be unsettling for some viewers.]
SOLON, Ohio (WJW) — Newly released video shows Solon police officer Bryan Butto pursuing and firing on a 16-year-old armed suspect as he flees on foot from a stolen vehicle near Roxbury Elementary School on Thursday morning.
“Drop the gun! Drop the gun! Drop the gun!” Butto is heard shouting as the suspect takes off into backyards, carrying what police said was a loaded handgun with an extended magazine.
Eight gunshots are then heard. A previous release from Solon Police Department stated Butto fired more than one shot, and police do not know if the suspect fired his gun. No one was injured in the shooting.
“We feel it is important to release this video to dispel any inaccurate rumors that may be circulating about it,” reads a Monday news release. “Video is only one source of evidence. Although it paints a picture of the incident, it is not a complete investigation.”
The police department declined to make additional statements about the video “until the investigations are complete.”
Just after 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, an automated license plate reader spotted a Honda Odyssey minivan that had been reported stolen along Aurora Road. Butto located the vehicle and learned it was carjacked at gunpoint in Cleveland on Tuesday, April 4. He used lights and sirens in an attempt to pull the vehicle over along SOM Center Road, but it did not stop.
The ensuing car chase lasting less than two minutes ended along Solon Boulevard, near Roxbury Elementary School. Police said the suspect fled on foot through backyards carrying the loaded gun, which he later dropped in the grass.
The gun police later recovered was a loaded, semi-automatic .40-caliber Glock model 23. It was equipped with an extended magazine and loaded with 22 bullets, one of which was chambered, police said.
This photo shows a 16-year-old boy suspected of driving a stolen vehicle exiting the vehicle with a loaded handgun after a police pursuit that ended near Roxbury Elementary School on Thursday, April 6, 2023. (Courtesy of Solon Police Department) 
This photo shows the loaded handgun with an extended magazine allegedly carried by a 16-year-old boy suspected of driving a stolen vehicle and leading police on a chase that ended near Roxbury Elementary School on Thursday, April 6, 2023. Mud can be seen on the weapon, police said. (Courtesy of Solon Police Department) 
This photo shows the loaded handgun with an extended magazine allegedly carried by a 16-year-old boy suspected of driving a stolen vehicle and leading police on a chase that ended near Roxbury Elementary School on Thursday, April 6, 2023. Mud can be seen on the weapon, police said. (Courtesy of Solon Police Department)
The teen was arrested and taken to the Cuyahoga County Juvenile Detention Center.
Butto was placed on paid administrative leave, which is standard procedure for officer-involved shootings. Butto was hired by Solon Police Department in May 2021 and has been an Ohio police officer since 2009, according to the release.
Solon Police Department previously said it is planning its own internal investigation relating to policy and procedures “as more facts are established.”
