2 SUSPECTS HAD RUN-INS WITH OFFICERS IN THE PAST

Until June, police hadn't heard of Robert Jobe. But in the last eight
months, the skinny kid known as "Bobby White" had chalked up at least
four arrests, including one in December after police found him with a
22-caliber handgun.

Today, the barely 15-year-old kid is expected to be charged in the
murder of vice and narcotics Detective Keith Dressel. A conviction
could send him to prison for the rest of his life.

"I was very upset when I saw his picture. I broke down and cried for
him and his mother. He's just a kid," said neighbor Glenda Monhollen,
adding that she's praying for the boy, the officer, and the families.

"It's tragic all the way around," she said. "It's so sad, it's ridiculous."

A detention hearing is scheduled at 1 p.m. in Lucas County Juvenile
Court, where assistant Lucas County prosecutor Lori Olender has said
she will request the teen stand trial as an adult on charges of
aggravated murder.

Also today, his alleged accomplice, 19-year-old Sherman Powell, will
appear in Toledo Municipal Court on felony counts of carrying a
concealed weapon and obstructing justice and a misdemeanor resisting
arrest charge.

His mother, Tracy Powell, said her son "was in the wrong place at the
wrong time."

Police allowed her to visit her son yesterday after his arrest. Ms.
Powell said she was shocked by bruises along his face and chipped
teeth, and blamed arresting officers for his injuries. On her cell
phone, she'd snapped photos of her son's injuries that morning - his
checks apparently discolored.

"If he's guilty, I want him held accountable for what he did. ... But
[police] have to be accountable too."

Asked about Ms. Powell's allegations of brutality, Toledo police
Chief Mike Navarre said her accusations will be investigated.

Today won't be the first time the teens have seen a courtroom, and
yesterday wasn't the first time they'd been on the streets in the
middle of the night.

In the Jobe youth's last confrontation with police, crews were
responding to a call of someone shooting a gun into the air at Bush
and Erie streets just after midnight Dec. 29.

A crew found young Jobe inside the Bush Quick Stop carryout with a
handgun sitting in a box near him. He gave officers a false name,
then ran. Officers said they struggled with him to put him under arrest.

Owner Mayssa Cheaib wasn't on duty at the time, but said she'd heard
about the incident. She said it was difficult to believe the
allegations about a teen whom she knew until then as respectful and
who'd stop to help stock shelves or talk.

"You don't think he'd actually hurt a soul," she said.

Still, she said she knew he'd used drugs because he often came in
"giggly and laughing - not himself."

In fact, police had arrested young Jobe for possessing crack cocaine
and marijuana June 28.

About 10:30 that night, officers were trying to serve a warrant on
somebody else at an upstairs apartment on Bush where an officer
reported "a very strong smell of marijuana ... inside." Officers said
they saw the boy leaving through a back door.

Asked if he'd been doing drugs, police said, the youth replied, "You
won't find anything on me."

But officers said they did find drugs: a marijuana cigarette in the
sweatband of the teen's hat, and a bag of cocaine and a marijuana
pipe on a television set inside the apartment.

He was already facing an "unruly" charge from a week earlier, but
both cases were dismissed.

Shortly before 10 p.m. on Sept. 7, crews confronted the teen again -
this time near Bush and Ontario streets.

Young Jobe emerged from what an officer reported as "a know[n] drug house."

When an officer tried to stop him, the Jobe teen swung as if to hit
her, fled, and later struggled with another officer.

Found delinquent of resisting arrest and obstructing official
business, the teen was ordered to an intensive weekly court program
in which participants attend frequent substance abuse sessions and
submit to urine screens.

Young Jobe violated probation in October, and was eventually forced
from the drug court program after his arrest Dec. 29. He was referred
to a community detention program.

In the meantime, he'd switched schools and didn't show up for class.
At Phoenix Academy on Jefferson Avenue, where he enrolled on Jan. 25,
Principal Earl Apgar said yesterday young Jobe was "within a week" of
being reported for truancy.

Yesterday, realizing that police were closing in on him for the
shooting of Detective Dressel, the boy made several calls. Among
them: his probation officer.

The teenager had no father to turn to. Clarence Robert Jobe, Jr., 52,
died in 2002. The teen lives with his mother, Diane, who, through
police, declined comment yesterday.

Mr. Powell has had his share of run-ins with police too, dating to
when he was just 11 years old. Most of the cases were dismissed.

But just before 3 a.m. Nov. 1, 2005, police stopped a red Oldsmobile
in North Toledo. Inside, they found Mr. Powell, then 17, marijuana,
and a "homemade water bong," police said.

Found guilty for the first time, he was ordered into substance abuse
counseling.

As an adult, Mr. Powell has been charged with obstructing official
business and loitering. On Monday, officers said he gave them a false
Social Security number during a traffic stop in the 1700 block of
North Erie St.

But his mother yesterday said many of Mr. Powell's dealings with
police were misunderstandings and teenage mischief.

"He's not a bad kid," Mrs. Powell said of the son she calls "Cass."

She said the phone rang at her Bush Street home shortly before 2 a.m.
yesterday. It was a family friend.

"She said, 'There's been a shooting. Make sure Cass is OK,' ," Mrs.
Powell said.

A short time later, police burst into the home, apparently searching
for young Jobe. Later, officers drove Ms. Powell to the Safety
Building to see her son.

"He said 'Ma, I love you,' and he just broke down crying," Ms. Powell said.

"He says it don't seem real."

Staff writer Christina Hall contributed to this report.