Officer James McCarty returned to duty Tuesday while Shawn Todd came back the first week of this year, said Miami Twp. Capt. Russell Johnson.
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Township officials said McCarty fired the shots at the 33-year-old Edwards in his Del Barton Avenue home at Oakwood Village mobile home park shortly after midnight Dec. 20.
Police said shots were fired after Edwards failed to comply with commands to drop his weapon, later discovered to be a pellet gun.
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Both officers were placed on paid administrative leave the day of the shooting, standard protocol in such cases. McCarty is on administrative duty while Todd, who did not discharge his weapon, returned to full duty, Johnson said.
“Any department that has officers involved in such critical incidents, what you want to simply do is just make sure…..that before they come back to duty to work in any capacity, that they’re up to fulfill the requirements of their job description,” he said. ”That’s simply what you do when ever they’re assessed by a professional.”
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Todd returned to work earlier because he did not fire his weapon and only “rendered first aid” to Edwards, Johnson said.
“Obviously, you evaluate the incident,” he added.
Johnson said McCarty’s duties will remain “in an administrative capacity until we work our way through the judicial proceedings.”
The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation is overseeing a criminal probe into the shooting, at the request of the Miami Twp. Police Department. The investigation is ongoing and is likely to last weeks, said Dorcas Jones of the Ohio attorney general’s office, which oversees BCI.
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An official cause of death for Edwards has not been made as test results are pending, the Montgomery County coroner’s office said last week.
When BCI completes its investigation, it will send its findings to prosecutors, who will decide whether to seek criminal charges.
The AG’s office has said decisions on returning officers involved in a shooting is a local one. Late last year, the Moraine Police Division re-activated two officers involved in a deadly Oct. 20 shooting. That investigation by BCI is remains open, Jones said.
McCarty and Todd responded to a call around 12:15 a.m. that a man at a home on Del Barton Avenue was making suicidal threats, “drinking and ready to pull the trigger,” Miami Twp. Police Chief Ron Hess has said.
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About 12:29 a.m. “officers made contact at the front door of the trailer, and warnings were given to the resident to drop a firearm,” Hess said in December. “Shots were fired at that time - roughly that time. Officers at about 12:31 reported there was a subject down.”
McCarty, 35, has been a Miami Twp. officer since March 20, 2017. He previously served as a police officer for about four years with the Miamisburg Police Department and six years with the Virginia Beach Police Department, according to the township.
Todd, 43, has been an officer with the township since Jan. 20, 2009. From 2002 through 2008, he served with police departments in Perry Twp., Riverside and Clayton, according to the township.
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