LIMA — Law enforcement officials remained tight-lipped Thursday afternoon on details surrounding a shooting on Lima’s north side earlier that morning by a member of a local SWAT team that left an unidentified man dead.
A press conference is scheduled for 10 a.m. today at the Allen County Sheriff’s Office, during which additional details surrounding the shooting will be made public, authorities said Thursday.
According to limited information released by the sheriff’s office Thursday, one adult male was shot and killed by a member of the Allen County Sheriff’s Office SWAT Team and the West Central Ohio Crime Task Force.
Sgt. Andre McConnahea, public information officer for the Allen County Sheriff’s Office, said the incident occurred around 8:40 a.m. at 218 W. Michigan Ave. during the execution of a search warrant by task force members.
Two SWAT team members have been placed on administrative leave following the shooting, a move McConnahea said is “per policy and procedure” at the sheriff’s office. He declined to identify the officers.
Representatives of the Bureau of Criminal Investigation, an arm of the Ohio Attorney General’s office that is called to investigate shootings involving law enforcement officers, arrived at the scene shortly before noon Thursday. McConnahea said talks were taking place as BCI officials and local law enforcement officials, as well as the prosecuting attorney, sorted out the details for the shooting.
A dozen or more law enforcement officials remained at the crime scene Thursday afternoon, including officers from the federal Drug Enforcement Agency, Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms unit and Federal Bureau of Investigation, McConnahea said.
The Wood County Sheriff’s Office has been contacted by Allen County Sheriff Matt Treglia and will serve as the lead agency in the investigation, said the sheriff’s office spokesman.
Allen County Coroner Gary Beasley could not be reached for comment late Thursday.
According to public records from the Allen County Auditor’s office, the single-dwelling home is owned by Keith T. Burkholder.
Lima Police Department officers responded to a shooting at that residence on Oct. 21 of last year and found Travis Burkholder suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. He was transported to St. Rita’s Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries.
Witnesses to the October incident told detectives a subject wearing a mask entered the home armed with a handgun and shot Burkholder. The suspect was described as a black male, around six feet tall, in his early 20s, and wearing a mask. The suspect fled the scene.
A spokesman at the Lima Police Department said Thursday afternoon he was uncertain if the suspect in that case was ever apprehended.
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