The suspect jumped into the badly damaged car and drove away.
“You need to get somebody here,” a female caller told dispatchers. “Shots fired, shots fired.”
Another woman told dispatchers, “He has taken off in his car. I can’t believe he just shot someone right in the middle of the street.”
A bullet hit the car of a woman traveling on Ohio 4 with her daughter, who is 9 months pregnant.
“He could have took all three of our lives,” the upset 911 caller said. “I have bullet holes in my car.”
A man in a truck took off after the suspect in the “mangled” vehicle, described as a blue sedan. He called 911, giving the suspect’s route.
“The guy just dropped a body on the street there by the fairgrounds. He took off , I am following him in my truck,” the caller tells dispatchers. He says the car is losing a part as the suspect drives down the street.
The caller said he’s trying to get a license number, “but my eyes are not the best.”
As the car —driving on flattened tires — pulls onto Morris Road, the caller is able to shout out the license plate number.
When the suspect parks, the caller gives an address and says the suspect is “running in between houses.” The suspect was wearing a leopard print shirt, the caller said.
Multiple agencies responded to assist, and the suspect was located by two Hamilton Police officers in the 6400 block of Tara Brooke Court in Fairfield Twp. just after 8 p.m. The suspect was confronted by the officers and pulled a gun on them.
The officers were prompted to discharge their firearms and the suspect was shot, police said.
In police radio traffic obtained by the Journal-News, officers with a West Chester K-9 unit were searching from the car to a pole barn in the wood line, and arrangements were made for a drone and helicopter to help with the search.
Officers believed the suspect may have jumped a fence. They received word someone had been in contact with a suspicious person who was “highly intoxicated” on Tara Brooke Court.
Minutes later, “Shots fired,” an officer says. “male down, male down.”
The suspect received medical aid at the scene, was taken to UC Hospital and pronounced dead at the hospital.
The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation is investigating the officer-involved shooting and the two officers involved have been placed on administrative leave accordance with departmental policy.
Autopsies of the two people were scheduled for Monday. Identities had not been released late Monday afternoon by the Butler County Coroner’s Office.
Hamilton Police Chief Craig Bucheit said there are multiple investigations underway involving both incidents. He said there no additional suspects connected to the Fairgrove shooting.
“It is still very early and there’s a lot of work left to do, “Bucheit said. “From what I have seen, the officers followed their training, used good tactics and acted to keep a very dangerous suspect from hurting anyone else.”
Butler County Prosecutor Michael Gmoser said Bucheit was in contact with him soon after the Saturday night shooting and had already requested BCI investigate the officer-involved shooting. When completed, Gmoser said, as is his policy in all of these cases, he will present the evidence personally to a Butler County grand jury for consideration.
The last Hamilton Police officer-involved shooting occurred in April 2017 when a knife welding 22-year old man was shot and killed in the parking lot Knollwood Crossing apartments. The investigation revealed the man was mentally disturbed and his actions were “suicide by cop.” A grand jury declined to return charges against the officer who fatally shot him.
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