Delaware deputies kill man in his front yard

A Delaware County man died Wednesday after being shot by deputies responding to a call that he was armed, making threats and acting erratically.

The incident was described in a recording of the 911 call released Wednesday by the sheriff’s office. The call from the man’s wife lasted nearly a half-hour as she expressed fear of being killed, urged a dispatcher and officers not to shoot her husband or her dogs, and then screamed and sobbed inconsolably after the man was shot.

Brian Puskas, 47, died at OhioHealth Grady Memorial Hospital in Delaware, where he was taken with life-threatening injuries just before 11:30 a.m.

Deputies had been called to Puskas’ home in the 11000 block of Kilbourne Road, north of Sunbury in Kingston Township, after a woman called 911 to report that her husband was threatening her.

“She said her husband came home early from work and was acting extremely erratic,” said Tracy Whited, spokeswoman for the Delaware County sheriff’s office.

The distraught woman ran to a neighbor’s house to contact law enforcement, telling them her husband had thrown their property out on the the front lawn.

She also said he was taking medication for high blood pressure and depression but had no history of the behavior he displayed Wednesday.

“He’s threatened me with guns and knives, he tore the air conditioner out of the window,” the woman told a dispatcher. “I tried to lock him out of the house and he took a filet knife and cut the window open. I don’t know what to do. ... He’s going to kill me. ... I don’t understand where this came from.”

Deputies found Puskas in front of his house holding a rifle and throwing things, Whited said. He then went back into the home and returned with knives and other weapons.

Deputies negotiated with Puskas for several minutes before firing at him, according to a release from the sheriff’s office. Whited said two or three of the officers discharged their weapons, though it was not known how many times Puskas was hit.

Deputies can be heard in the background of the recording of the 911 call, and the woman describes Puskas walking toward the house with his hands up, then throwing something at the deputies and walking around the yard.

“He won’t listen to the officers,” she said, watching from behind a truck at a neighbor’s house. “The officer is behind his vehicle. ... He’s done nothing wrong, he’s just throwing stuff around. I don’t want my husband to be shot, he just needs help.”

She later describes seeing at least four deputies at the scene.

“They’re taking aim at him,” she told the dispatcher. “Brian, please, just listen to them, please. ... Could they maybe not shoot him and just Tase him?”

She screams as her husband is shot. No one else was injured.

The deputies involved, whose names were not released late Wednesday afternoon, were placed on paid administrative leave pending an investigation by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation.

Whited said there was no record of domestic violence incidents at the residence.