A stolen-car investigation in Cincinnati escalated into a sprawling neighborhood manhunt and a fatal officer-involved shooting after three young men fled from police and one of them was later found armed in a wooded area.

The May 1, 2025, incident began in East Price Hill after police located a vehicle that had been reported stolen earlier that day in Edgewood, Kentucky. According to the footage, the owner had tracked the car using GPS after it was connected to a shooting incident in Cincinnati.

Inside the vehicle were three young men later identified as Ryan Hinton, De’Anthony Bullock and Jerrell Austin.

When officers approached, all three ran.

What followed involved patrol officers, drones, K9 units, mistaken detentions and hours of searching across streets, alleys and wooded areas.

The search ended when officers encountered 18-year-old Ryan Hinton in the woods. Police said he had a gun and pointed it toward officers before they opened fire. Hinton was later pronounced dead.

Three Suspects Scatter Through the Neighborhood

The vehicle had been located along Warsaw Avenue in East Price Hill.

Once officers moved toward it, the occupants fled in different directions, forcing police to rapidly expand the search perimeter.

The case immediately became more complicated because investigators believed the vehicle had been associated with recent gunfire and did not yet know whether anyone had been seriously injured.

Officers warned local businesses and public facilities, including a nearby library, that multiple people connected to the incident were still at large.

Police deployed drones and K9 teams while officers spread through surrounding streets searching for anyone matching the suspects’ descriptions.

But the urgency of the search soon produced a major complication.

Police detained the wrong person.

An Innocent Man Is Mistaken for a Suspect

Near the library, officers stopped a man who appeared to match one of the descriptions.

He repeatedly told police he had nothing to do with the incident and said he had simply been walking through the neighborhood.

The man even pointed out that if he had committed a crime, he would have run when he saw police approaching.

Officers asked whether he had fired a gun that day and tested him for gunshot residue.

The test came back clean.

Police concluded that he was not one of the suspects and released him.

It would not be the only mistaken detention during the operation.

Later, officers stopped another man nearly three miles away after he matched a clothing description. He told them repeatedly that he was simply walking to work.

After checking his identity, police again determined they had detained the wrong person and apologized.

“You might have been at the wrong place at the wrong time,” an officer told him.

Meanwhile, the real suspects were still moving through the area.

A Separate Gun Theft Becomes Important

While officers continued searching, another report came in.

A woman told police that a handgun had been stolen from her vehicle.

She explained that she had purchased it years earlier but did not immediately have the serial number available.

Police took the report and advised her to obtain the serial number so the weapon could be entered into law-enforcement databases.

At that point, officers did not yet know whether the stolen gun was connected to the suspects they were chasing.

But the missing firearm would later become a critical piece of the investigation.

The manhunt continued.

Drones Help Officers Capture Two Suspects

Police eventually used a drone to locate a suspect moving into a wooded area.

Officers then deployed teams from opposite directions, attempting to prevent him from slipping out of the search zone.

The tactic worked.

One suspect was captured and placed into custody.

A second suspect was later spotted moving through another wooded area and was also apprehended.

By then, two of the three people who had fled from the stolen vehicle were in custody.

But one problem remained.

The stolen gun had not been found on either man.

That raised the possibility that the final suspect was armed.

Final 911 Call Leads Police Into the Woods

Another homeowner soon reported seeing someone run through a backyard.

Because officers were already positioned nearby, they quickly moved toward the location.

The suspect had already left the yard, but officers followed his path into a wooded area.

As they moved through the trees, officers reminded one another to avoid creating crossfire.

Then the encounter changed almost instantly.

“He’s got a gun,” an officer shouted.

“He’s got a gun on your right.”

Police ordered the suspect to get on the ground and show his hands.

Within seconds, shots were fired.

According to the narration in the footage, two officers saw the suspect holding a firearm and pointing it toward them. Police fired five rounds in response.

Officers immediately requested an ambulance.

The suspect was later identified as 18-year-old Ryan Hinton.

He died despite emergency medical efforts.

Autopsy Shows Three Gunshot Wounds

The medical examiner later determined that Hinton had been struck by three bullets.

According to the transcript’s summary of the autopsy, one round entered beneath his left arm, traveled through his chest and critically damaged his heart before exiting near the center of his chest.

A second bullet struck his left forearm.

A third caused a soft-tissue injury near his upper back and right shoulder.

Investigators determined that the chest wound was fatal and was likely the first round that struck him.

The shooting quickly became controversial as Hinton’s family sought answers about the circumstances surrounding his death.

Police maintained that Hinton had been armed and had pointed a gun toward officers.

Surviving Suspects Describe What Happened

At the police station, investigators identified the two surviving suspects as 19-year-old De’Anthony Bullock and 18-year-old Jerrell Austin.

Both admitted they had been inside the stolen vehicle with Hinton and had run when officers approached.

They denied taking part in the shooting that had initially drawn police attention to the vehicle.

According to the case summary, investigators ultimately determined that neither Bullock nor Austin had fired a weapon.

Police said Hinton was the only person armed during the final encounter with officers.

Bullock and Austin were later charged in connection with the incident and pleaded guilty to obstructing official business.

Tragedy Deepens Days Later

The consequences of Hinton’s death extended beyond the original manhunt.

According to the transcript, his family called for a full investigation into the police shooting.

Days later, the case took another tragic turn when Hinton’s father, Rodney Hinton Jr., was charged with aggravated murder after allegedly driving a vehicle into a Hamilton County sheriff’s deputy.

The transcript describes that act as occurring in the aftermath of his son’s death; the allegation against the father represents a separate criminal case and should not be treated as part of the original officer-involved shooting.

What began as the recovery of a stolen car ultimately became a day-long police operation involving three fleeing suspects, multiple mistaken detentions, K9 teams, drones, a stolen firearm and a fatal confrontation in the woods.

For investigators, the final encounter centered on whether Hinton posed an immediate armed threat.

For his family, his death became the beginning of a much larger fight for answers.

And for the Cincinnati community, a stolen vehicle call that initially looked routine became the first chapter in a chain of events that would continue long after the gunfire stopped.