After seeing the police car, Toler ran on foot, according to Police Chief Earl Nelson.
After Toler fled, officers went to an Auburn Street home, his most recent listed address, but he was not there.
Officers were then directed by a possible family member of Toler’s to a home in the 2000 block Howard Avenue, where a next-door neighbor told officers Toler had gone into the Howard Avenue home from the backyard.
Additional officers responded to the scene around 5:40 p.m., and a person who came from inside the home said Toler “was in the basement and had a firearm,” according to the incident report.
The same person told another officer Toler reportedly said, “if anyone answered the door that he would start shooting.”
Following an hour-long standoff, several announcements from police over speaker and gas deployed in the home multiple times, Toler was located in a basement crawl space, according to Nelson.
Toler was arrested at 10:47 p.m. Sunday, according to the incident report, and booked into Middletown jail, where he remains.
Toler is charged with failure to comply with a lawful order and obstructing official business — both misdemeanors — in Middletown Municipal Court, in addition to the felony probation violation charge out of Butler County that led to his warrant being issued.
The probation violation is from a prior fourth-degree felony charge of improperly handling firearms in a motor vehicle, according to court records.
Toler was sentenced to five years probation in November 2023 for this charge.
In January 2024, after failing to appear for a Substance Abuse Mental Illness, or SAMI, court review, a warrant for his arrest was issued.
He was arrested in April 2024 and resentenced to parole and six months at a Community Correctional Center, according to court records.
Again in September of this year, Toler violated parole after failing to appear for SAMI Court Review and a warrant for his arrest was filed.
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