Four police officer-involved shootings have occurred in Montgomery County’s south suburbs in the past six months.
The shootings — involving Miami Twp., Miamisburg and Moraine since Oct. 20 — are unusual, authorities have said, but share little in common other than they involve police officers.
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Here are seven things to know about the shootings:
•All three communities involved are located along Interstate 75. Two of the shootings – one on Feb. 5 and one April 3 – occurred near the I-75/Ohio 725 interchange.
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The busy interchange is a high-volume call area, both Miamisburg and Miami Twp. police have said, and the highway makes for a more convenient, quick exit from the area.
•The suspect wounded in last week's shooting at the Red Roof Inn in Miamisburg is in the Montgomery County Jail after being arrested by U.S. marshals Saturday, jail records show.
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Police said he was wounded in the left leg multiple times and suffered non-life-threatening injuries after being shot Tuesday night, when he was the subject of a warrant for a federal probation violation.
•In all 4 shootings, police said, the person shot failed to comply with officers commands to drop their weapon. In the Dec. 20 deadly shooting of Robert Edwards in Miami Twp., that gun was later discovered to be a BB gun.
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•Police-involved shootings are rare for these communities. The Oct. 20 fatal shooting of Dayton resident Jamarco McShann, Moraine police said, was the first one involving police since the city incorporated in 1965.
Last week’s wounding of Watson was the first time a Miamisburg officer discharged his weapon in the line of duty since 2010, records show.
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Miami Twp. police officers – who were involved in the Dec. 20 death of Robert Edwards and the Feb. 5 wounding of a 17-year-old robbery suspect from Dayton – were last involved in a shooting in 2011, according to records from this news organization.
•Two Miamisburg officers have been placed on paid administrative leave after Tuesday night's shooting. Neither have been identified by Miamisburg police and only one officer fired shots, according to Police Chief John Sedlak.
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•Hotels along the interstate generate a high volume of calls. More than a dozen lodging facilities are located near the Austin Boulevard and Ohio 725 interchanges, and are often an area of criminal activity, Miami Twp. and Miamisburg police have said.
•No officers in the shootings have been the subject of criminal charges. A Montgomery County grand jury did not indict Moraine police officers John Howard and Jerry Knight. A grand jury also cleared Miami Twp. Officer James Swearingen, who was off-duty during the Feb. 5 shooting.
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No announcement has been made regarding Miami Twp. Officer James McCarty in the fatal shooting of Edwards on Dec. 20. The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation was asked to oversee all of those criminal investigations.
The criminal investigation into the latest shooting, police said, is being handled by the Tactical Crime Suppression Unit, a coalition of eight Dayton-area suburbs.
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