Cop-shooting suspect told son she would ‘blast’ intruders
A Northeast Columbus woman accused of shooting a Columbus police officer during a drug raid at her home Thursday had told her incarcerated son last year that “she would shoot anyone who entered her home, whether law enforcement or civilian,” according to federal authorities.
A federal affidavit released Friday states that Rita Gray, 68, told her son Eric while he was in jail: “If you break any door in, I’m a be standing in that hallway ... I don’t care nothing about you hollerin’ police because a robber could be police.
“I’ll be standing right there in that hallway ready to blast. I’ll stand right around my corner there and blast however many shots I got.”
Gray is charged with shooting Officer Russ Weiner, 53, during a raid shortly after 8 a.m. at Gray’s home as Weiner and other officers were executing a narcotics-related search warrant.
Weiner was struck once in his protective vest but once outside it and was taken in critical condition to Mount Carmel East hospital. He was immediately rushed into surgery. He remained hospitalized Friday in stable condition.
Weiner will have a “long recovery,” but he is improving, Columbus Police Chief Thomas Quinlan said Friday.
According to court documents, police and agents with the federal Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives knocked on the front door of Gray’s home and announced their presence. When there was no response, agents broke down the door and entered.
Gray, in an interior hallway, fired and hit Weiner at close range, the documents state. Other officers apprehended Gray, who was not injured. Two semiautomatic Glock pistols were recovered.
A second Columbus officer suffered a hand injury but was treated and released.
Gray is charged in a federal criminal complaint with conspiring to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine and oxycodone; possession with intent to distribute oxycodone, and discharging a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. If convicted on all counts, she would face 20 years to life in prison.
Additional charges are expected against her.
Her son, Eric, 31, had been held in the Franklin County jail beginning in 2017 on two arrests on charges of possessing dangerous drugs. Authorities investigated Eric Gray regarding interstate trafficking to bring marijuana, oxycodone, methamphetamine and other narcotics to Columbus.