Two Ohio police were justified when they shot and killed a man holding a pellet gun inside a Beavercreek Walmart, a grand jury decided Wednesday in declining to indict the cops.
John Crawford III, 22, was on his cell phone the evening of Aug. 5 when Sgt. David Darkow and Officer Dean Williams found him down an aisle, holding a Crosman MK-177 BB/pellet rifle in one hand, and opened fire, killing him.
A grand jury, seated Monday, heard from 18 different witnesses, watched and listened to hours of audio and video and found the Beavercreek police officers were not guilty of murder, negligent homicide or reckless homicide, Special Prosecutor Mark Piepmeier said at a news conference following the decision to no bill the cops.
A 37-year-old woman, Angela Williams, died after going into cardiac arrest as she ran from the store following the shooting around 8:25 p.m. Aug. 5.
The special prosecutor, appointed to investigate the case by State Attorney General Mike DeWine, called the shooting a tragedy for Crawford's family and the officers, who will live their lives knowing 'they took the life of someone who didn't need to die.'
Crawford committed no crime the night of his death, Piepmeier said.
Piepmeier showed store surveillance video which captured the moments before, during and after the shooting, all synced up with a 911 call placed by shopper Ronald Ritchie.
Ritchie told dispatchers that Crawford pointed the facsimile weapon and women and children and appeared to be 'trying to load' the gun. Earlier this month, he changed his story, telling The Guardian, 'At no point did he shoulder the rifle and point it at somebody.'
He was waving it around, Ritchie said.
Video shows Crawford pick up weapon near the gun counter and walk away with it as he speaks on the phone. Other shoppers appear to notice but stay calm.
Ritchie stays on the phone and describes to the dispatcher Crawford's location at the end of an aisle.
Crawford stands in the aisle for several moments, apparently on the phone, when officers turn the corner and appear to yell. Crawford appears surprised by the officers' presence, turns to them and is shot twice. He drops the gun, stumbles out of sight, before returning to the aisle where officers approach and apprehend the now-unarmed man.
Piepmeier said the pellet gun is normally in a box, but someone removed it from its packaging and placed it back on a shelf.
A store clerk notified a manager and told them Crawford was carrying the weapon. The clerk said he or she was unsure if the gun was real or fake, but was afraid it might cause a panic, Piepmeier said.
Piepmeier says the manager learned of the incident just as officers arrived and opened fire.
Beavercreek police had undergone training for active shooter situations just two weeks before the fatally confrontation.
The two cops have been on paid leave since the shooting, though investigators have not said which one fired the fatal shot.
'I believe the grand jury's decision, it's absolutely the right decision, that the officers acted well within their training,' the attorney for the cops, Vince Pope, told WHIO-TV.
Greene County has had three fatal officer-involved shootings in the last five years, none of which ended with the officers charged, the station reported.
Groups from the Ferguson, Mo. area, the site of the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown just four days after Crawford's death, came to the Beavercreek area, in suburban Dayton, Ohio, to support protesters upset by the killing.
'The Special Grand Jury in Greene County made the wrong decision,' Dayton NAACP chapter president Derrick Foward told WHIO. 'It's a sad day in the history of Dayton. We will be calling for a full and complete investigation by the U.S. Dept. of Justice.'
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sgoldstein@nydailynews.com
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