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A Woodlawn police officer escaped injury early Sept. 16, 2010, after three men opened fire with rifles on his marked cruiser at a Lincoln Heights intersection, police said.

Officer Timothy Barrett had responded to Lincoln Heights around midnight to assist with a report of shots fired, and three people were taken into custody in connection with that call. About an hour later, Barrett was stopped at Leggett Road and Van Buren Avenue when he saw four people nearby, three of them aiming long rifles at his cruiser.

Barrett ducked down and hit the accelerator as 10 to 20 rounds were fired at the vehicle. He was not hit. The cruiser's rear and side windows were blown out and its tires were destroyed, and rounds were later found lodged in the headrest, police said.

Barrett radioed for help as he fled the intersection. "I need anybody out here with an assault rifle," he said over the radio. "Get 32 down here." Moments later, he warned responding units: "Tell them to be careful coming up Leggett. They're sitting in ambush on the east side of the street two blocks south of where Lincoln Heights is right now."

Lincoln Heights Police Chief Ron Twitty said Barrett's decision to flee while reporting the gunfire over the radio was the right call. "There is no doubt in my mind that once they started firing they intended to kill him," Twitty said. Police shut down several blocks of the village and brought in K-9 units and a helicopter to search for the shooters. No one was arrested that night, and Barrett was placed on paid administrative leave while the shooting was investigated.

Nearly two months later, a grand jury indicted three men in the ambush. John Jackson III was arrested at an apartment complex off Compton Road and Lunsford Wolfork Jr. turned himself in to Cincinnati police. Thomas Jackson, 29, was taken into custody separately and charged with attempted murder, felonious assault and tampering with evidence. No record of a trial, verdict or sentence for any of the three could be found, so how the cases against them were resolved is not established here.

The recording is police radio traffic from the night of the ambush, running about seven minutes. It is a logging tape capturing dispatch and officer communications as the gunfire happened and as units searched Lincoln Heights for the shooters afterward.