Officer-involved shooting faces review
Cincinnati man killed Monday in Hamilton.
— An internal HAMILTON investigation and review by a Butler County grand jury will follow an officer-involved shooting that left a Cincinnati man dead Monday morning in Hamilton.
A robbery suspect holding a knife to the throat of a Walgreens pharmacist was shot and killed by police just after 2:30 a.m. Monday at the High Street store, according to Hamilton police.
The dead suspect was identifed as Kelley Brandon Forte, 34, of Cincinnati, by the Butler County Coroners Office. An autopsy was completed Monday, but the cause of death is pending. Two Hamilton police officers arrived at the store at 1090 High St. after a 911 call by a customer who told dispatchers he saw a man climb over the pharmacy counter, Hamilton Police Chief Craig Bucheit said.
“(The customer) also alerted the clerk at the front of the store” of what he saw, Bucheit said.
The clerk went back to the pharmacy and tried to make contact with the pharmacist.
“She was able to make voice contact with the pharmacist, but based on the response that she received, she thought something was suspicious and she too called 911,” Bucheit said.
The 911 calls obtained by the Journal-News indicate the suspect was seen jumping over the counter.
In one call, a man told the dispatcher, “Dude hopped the counter.”
“I seen him hop the counter... he is back there with one of the workers. I don’t know if he has got a gun, but he is back there with her,” he said.
When the dispatcher asked if the man was threatening the employee, the caller said, “It looks a little suspect. I am not sure what is going on.”
In the second 911 call, the store employee tells dispatchers that she could not pull up the area on the store’s surveillance cameras. She told the dispatcher that when she went back to check, the pharmacist said she was okay, but she could not see her.
The two Hamilton officers about one minute after the calls. They entered the store and made their way to the pharmacy area.
When they entered the pharmacy, which Bucheit described as “a confined and close-quartered area,” the officers discovered Forte holding the pharmacist hostage with a knife to her throat, Bucheit said.
“The suspect failed to comply with the officer’s commands and was shot and fatally wounded by the first officer,” he said.
The officers were not named by police Monday, but are expected to be identified today.
The officer who fired the gunshots is a 33-yearold, nine-year veteran of the department, according to Bucheit. The second officer is 23 years old and a one-year veteran of the department.
The fatal shooting will be presented to a Butler County grand jury for review, according to county Prosecutor Michael Gmoser.
It has been a policy since Gmoser took office that all officer-involved shootings be reviewed by a grand jury.
Gmoser told this news outlet that Monday’s fatal shooting will be no different.
“That is protocol in this county, no matter how obvious the evidence should be,” Gmoser said.
The police chief said the investigation is ongoing.
“We are in the process of following up on interviewing the witnesses, collecting physical evidence and working through this investigation.,” he said. “I can assure you that this will be a full, fair and impartial and transparent investigation.”
Bucheit said the pharmacist was “shook up” after Monday’s shooting.
“As you can imagine, a very traumatic experience for her and the officers as well,” Bucheit said. The pharmacist was not physically injured. According to the police report, the pharmacist is 46 years old.
The incident reminded area pharmacists that their job can be dangerous.
Charles Rohrig, a pharmacist at Mills Pharmacy in Fairfield, said the profession is “getting a little more dangerous.”
“Some of the drugs they’ve been getting on the street are harder to get,” he told this news outlet.
With laws being toughened to limit access to opioids, Rohrig said people are “going to more desperate means to get it.”.