MIDDLETOWN, Ohio — Five Middletown police officers who have been on administrative leave since April 24 won't face charges for firing shots that wounded a man during a standoff, according to Butler County court documents.
A report issued May 15 says a Butler County grand jury declined to indict the officers, "having questioned all pertinent investigative witnesses ... and having considered all of the facts in the case presented to it by the prosecuting attorney of Butler County."
A spokesperson with BCI said the agency was contacted by Middletown police after a shooting involving police on Park Lane on April 24.
Dan Hils, president of the Cincinnati FOP and Front Line Advisors, said the Butler County Crisis Team first responded to an apartment complex after family members called concerned about a possibly suicidal man. When the team arrived and realized he had a gun and was not making sense, they called Middletown police.
Hils said the man barricaded himself inside a home and fired shots at officers, who shot back. The man was wounded and taken to a hospital; no officers were injured.
"They were working on some sort of plan to get him to come outside whether that was with tear gas, or some sort of other agent, they never got that opportunity because it's my understanding the individual fired some shots at the SWAT officers," said Hils in April.
According to court documents from his indictment, the man who was shot by police, 29-year-old Kyle Kellum, faces a first-degree felonious assault charge and is being held in the Butler County jail on a $250,000 bond.
The shooting was the second where a Middletown police officer fired a weapon and shot a person this year. On February 25, police shot and killed 47-year-old Victor Lykins during a traffic stop; Warren County prosecutor David Fornshell announced on April 14 he wouldn't seek charges for the officers involved in that case.
Middletown police do not have body cameras, only dash cameras. Chief David Birk said the city was awarded just under $50,000 from the Ohio Body Worn Camera Grant but turned it down.
"We were hoping we would get the full amount with the grant. We didn't," Middletown Police Chief David Birk said in April.
Middletown's city manager, Paul Lolli, said at the time that, when the city set its budget for the year, it hadn't accounted for a record redaction specialist's salary that would have to come with the implementation of the body-worn cameras.
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