At 10:15 a.m. this morning, Thursday, June 16th, Williams County Sheriff Deputies were requested to conduct a wellbeing check at a residence located on US Route 20 in the area of County Road 7. An area health care facility had been on the telephone with an adult male who sounded irate and upset. The male made statements that caused the health care provider personnel to believe that he may intend to harm himself or others with a firearm.
At 10:31 a.m. deputies arrived at the residents and attempted to engage in conversation with a male who was brandishing what appeared to be an AR-15 style rifle. Several local law enforcement agencies responded to assist including: Blakeslee, Edgerton, Edon, Montpelier, Pioneer, Stryker and West Unity along with the State Highway Patrol officers. A Sheriff’s Deputy continued to engage the male in conversation.
At 10:52 a.m. Medic One and Life Squad left their staging areas responding to the scene where the male suspect had been fatally shot by an area officer. Sheriff Towns was at the scene and will lead the follow up investigation along with assistance from Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation, Williams County Coroner’s Office and Williams County Prosecutor’s Office.
(Press Release Received By “The Village Reporter” From Sheriff Towns)
1 Comment
I thought the sheriffs office was called to stop him from killing himself and then you killed him. Why did you show up? If you feared for your life why didn’t you get back and out of range and call his family, his hospice doctor or a mental health professional? You had all day to calm the situation down but in 20 minutes you shot and killed him. He had a mental illness that day and your answer was to get close, surround him with guns pointing at him and kill him. He was sick. I’m confused. Why did you show up? To kill him or to save his life? Seems like a big bad decision. At what time are we going to stop killing sick people and really help them? You need a lot more training because the department that was to help him guy killed . Don’t call 911 if someone you know is thinking of taking their own lives because they will kill him. Maybe its time they look at their procedures to save them instead of killing them.