Akron shooting victim talks about on-going feud with neighbor that led to a shootout

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) - New revelations about what led up to a shootout between neighbors on July 30th, that left two women injured, and one man in handcuffs facing three counts of felony assault.

Akron Police tell 19 News the exchange of gunfire happened in broad daylight in the 200 block of Stoddard Avenue, on July 30th, and shots were still being fired when police arrived.

One of the shooting victims, 21-year-old Teasihaj Rogers was shot in the leg but has since been released from the hospital. She tells 19 News, that she lived in a duplex on Stoddard Avenue and had long-standing issues with her upstairs neighbor Jason Turkovich and feared this day would come. Rogers says the alleged harassment by Turkovich had reached a point of no return, “I just heard shots, so I instantly dropped to the ground and the next thing you know, I’m trying to hide under the car.”

But, before running for her life Rogers snapped a picture of Turkovich confronting her and her Aunt Kayla Holt on the street. In the image, Turkovich has a gun drawn and is wearing a bulletproof vest. As Rogers tries to shield herself on the ground behind a car, Turkovich emerged and allegedly shot her, “He’s at this point looking directly at me and fires three shots. The first shot hit me in my leg. I felt it immediately because I’m sitting here watching him shoot me.”

It all started when Rogers came home to pick up some clean clothes and found the outside door to the building nailed shut. She says she kicked in the door along with her aunt, and when they entered her apartment gasoline covered nearly everything in her apartment, “Dumped it wherever he chose, the walls. I’m thinking did he plan on lighting me up in here.”

In the Akron Police body cam video released by the department, you can see Rogers and her Aunt Kayla Holt in a driveway, screaming out in pain after the shooting. A family friend who was not hurt immediately put her hands in the air and handed her gun over to the police, telling officers it was self-defense. She was not charged in the case.

Police say Turkovich took off running as police moved in. More officers were called in to search for him and eventually, Turkovich surrendered in his underwear, sitting on the ground with his hands in the air. Turkovich asked the officers was he safe and kept thanking the Lord. He was charged with three counts of felonious assault, but was back out on the streets five days later, after posting 10% of a $100,000 bond. They located his gun by a set of orange cones in a garage not far from where he surrendered, they also took his cell phone as evidence that reportedly was recording what happened.

Rogers who now has a rod in her leg and will have to go through months of therapy to walk again says she can never return to that Stoddard Avenue duplex because every day for the last year she’s lived in fear of her neighbor.

Just a few days prior to the shooting Turkovich was charged with aggravated menacing when he pulled a knife on the 21-year-old student.

Rogers says on that day he went down to the breaker box and turned off her electricity, and when she went to the basement to turn it back on he’s accused of coming at her with a knife. The young woman also captured that moment on her cell phone camera.

The victim also accuses Turkovich of spray painting her surveillance cameras and even trying to remove them.

Her mother DeShawna Johnson says when he shot her daughter and the victim’s aunt who remains hospitalized, Turkovich was out of jail on a signature bond from Akron Municipal Court on menacing charges, she says she begged police for help, “I kept telling them. He’s going to kill my baby. He’s going to kill my baby.”

Now, as a mother Johnson is begging prosecutors and judges to lay down the law on a man she says is clearly a violent offender, “Because what’s next, he has to actually kill somebody?”

19 News made several attempts to reach Jason Turkovich but was unsuccessful. On Saturday, an Akron Judge put out a warrant for his arrest on a menacing charge, where he’s accused of threatening the shooting victim’s mother in front of police.

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