Police kill woman firing rifle in standoff

A 25-year-old woman was killed by Columbus police SWAT officers Saturday after, they say, she barricaded herself in a Southeast Side house with a rifle and fired rounds during a standoff of more than three hours.

Kaitlin Marie Demeo died at the scene of the shooting in the 6300 block of Whims Road.

Officers were called to the residence at 4:27 a.m. by a neighbor who reported that shots had been fired, said Sgt. Dean Worthington, a police spokesman. “When they got there, the shots continued,” he said, and SWAT was called to the home.

Attempts to negotiate with Demeo by phone were unsuccessful, and she periodically fired shots from a front window and a rear window on the second floor, Worthington said.

Officers were authorized to use deadly force because of the danger that Demeo’s actions posed, not just to officers but also to the public, Worthington said.

“That rifle could reach a number of houses in the neighborhood,” he said. “Those rounds can go through walls in a heartbeat.”

When Demeo fired from the rear of the house shortly after 8 a.m., two SWAT officers returned fire and hit her, he said.

Demeo was firing from a relative’s home, Worthington said. Her last known home was in the 1000 block of East 26th Street in the Linden area.

Worthington declined to discuss the motive for Demeo’s actions. She had no criminal record in Franklin County.

The neighborhood where the barricade occurred is east of Brice Road and just north of Canal Winchester.

It was the fourth officer-involved shooting in Columbus this year.