On April 7, 2001, according to testimony in Hamilton County Municipal Court:
Two off-duty Cincinnati Police officers working late-night security at the Warehouse bar, 1313 Vine St., spotted 19-year-old Timothy Thomas on the street. They knew he was wanted on 14 outstanding warrants, most were traffic offenses. Thomas recognized one of the officers and ran.
“I’m chasing a Black man, about 6 feet tall, wearing a red bandana and an Indy 500 jacket, Officer David Damico radioed a dispatcher.
A dozen officers joined the chase down streets and alleys. Officer Stephen Roach, driving south on Republic Street, saw Thomas jumping a fence. He ran from his squad car and confronted Thomas in an alley behind 1224 Republic.
Cincinnati police officer Nedra Ward
“I was standing on the front line, getting cursed out, people telling me, ‘Why don’t you quit your job?’ ”
Even the work part of the day was like nothing she’d ever known.
“I was standing on the front line, getting cursed out, people telling me, ‘Why don’t you quit your job?’” she said.
The officer gets it. In fact, some of her family members were among the protesters. But the anger directed at her, as a Black woman wearing a badge, was tough.
Her career had started in the wake of the 2001 riots, after which she joined the department to make sure people who looked like her were represented on the force.