Man killed by police during drug raid
Whitehall police SWAT officers shot and killed a 28-year-old man who they say was armed as they attempted to come in with a search warrant to an apartment at a complex Friday morning.
The Joint Eastside Tactical Response Team went to an apartment in the Big Walnut Apartments, in the 5300 block of Great Oak Way, north of East Main Street, about 8 a.m. Police said that fentanyl-laced heroin was being sold from the apartment unit.
As the SWAT officers went into the apartment, they encountered an armed man —identified later by police as Ledarren D. Mixon — which led to a confrontation, according to police. Three officers were involved in the shooting.
Mixon, who according to court records lived in Berwick, died a short time later at a local hospital. No officers were injured.
Whitehall Deputy Police Chief Dan Kelso said the names of the officers involved in the shooting likely won’t be released until Saturday. He said he didn’t know how many times or where on his body Mixon was shot.
Columbus police were called to investigate the shooting. Five other adults and two children also were in the apartment at the time of the incident.
“This was an extremely dangerous location for officers and the community,” Whitehall police Chief Mike Crispen said in a written statement. “A resident was selling heroin and fentanyl from the home where children lived and were present.”
Malik Pernell, who lives near the apartment where the shooting happened, said he heard multiple gunshots. When he looked outside, he saw Whitehall police coming out of a unit.
“The craziest part is, like, (it’s) basically next door,” Pernell, 22, said.
Felicia Marshall, 24, whose sister dates Pernell, said Mixon was driving a car last week that slowly hit her car head-on in the complex.
“He barely rolled down the window,” Marshall said. “My boyfriend asked if he was OK. He just sped out.”
Mike Monroe, 50, who has lived in the complex for six years, said it is usually quiet there.
“Nothing crazy ever happens here,” he said.
A 33-year-old man, who lives in the complex but declined to give his name, called what happened, “kind of scary.”
“A lot of people are surprised,” he said.
Ciara Banks, assistant property manager at Big Walnut Apartments, wouldn’t discuss the shooting.
Whitehall police said Mixon was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2008 for aggravated robbery, aggravated burglary and theft. He was released in July 2016 and placed on parole until July 2021. Whitehall police also arrested and charged Mixon with drug trafficking in 2007.
Before Friday, the most recent police-involved shooting in Whitehall was on March 9, 2010, when two officers responded to a report of a man with a shotgun at Norton Field Park. The officers ordered 53-year-old Richard A. Napper to drop the gun, but he refused. The two officers, Scott Miller and Jerry Dillon, fired when Napper raised his gun, killing him.