Decorated officer taken to hospital after accidental drug exposure

Credit: DaytonDailyNews

A Middletown police officer was transported to Atrium Medical Center for treatment after she was exposed to drugs during an investigation Thursday night.

Officer Sheoki Reece came in contact with a narcotic, and while driving a suspect to the Middletown police station she appeared “very nervous” and told a fellow officer she felt like she was going to pass out. Her hands were tingling and she was light-headed, she told officers, according to the report.

Reece said she didn’t realize she had methamphetamine residue on her hands, and when she wiped her nose in the police cruiser, she inhaled some drugs, she said in the report. She said her heart “began to race” and she became “very hot and nauseated,” the report said.

MORE: Police officer honored for saving boy’s life at pool party

She pulled over, and Middletown paramedics transported her to Atrium. Maj. David Birk said Reece was treated and released from Atrium, and she has returned to work.

Reece, 41, was hired as a corrections officer in 2007 and promoted to police officer in 2013. She was named Employee of the Year in 2017 for saving a boy’s life at a pool party.

Middletown officers were dispatched to the area of the 700 block of Wilson Street on Thursday night when a resident called police and said he believed two subjects were looking in windows.

Police found the man who called police with a machete in his hand and he was trying to detain the subjects. Police told him to drop the knife. The report said one man, with his hands in the air, was crying and yelling, “Don’t kill me! Don’t kill me!”

Two suspects were found in the area. Seth King, 21, of Middletown, was “screaming, rolling around and acting paranoid,” according to the police report.

Another subject, Christopher Maloney, 19, of Mason, resisted being handcuffed by officers, and he told them he had a BB gun in his jacket pocket.

Police found two bags in the area and Maloney, and King were transported to the police station.

Several baggies were found in the gym bags and on the suspects, the report said. Police believe one bag contained methamphetamine and the other contents were sent to the crime lab, the report said.

Maloney was charged with felony drug conveyance and drug possession. King was charged with criminal trespass.

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