Board clears 2 SWAT officers in fatal shooting

Two Columbus police SWAT officers acted within the Police Division’s use-of-firearms policy when they returned fire and fatally shot a woman who was barricaded with a rifle inside a Southeast Side house last March, police said.

Kaitlin Marie Demeo, 25, was shot at a residence in the 6300 block of Whims Road in a neighborhood east of Brice Road and just north of Canal Winchester on March 24, 2018. Demeo lived in South Linden and was visiting a relative at the time.

Demeo had barricaded herself inside the house during that Saturday afternoon and periodically had fired an AR-15 rifle from the secondfloor windows of the house. Attempts to negotiate with her by phone that day were unsuccessful, Columbus police said.

When Demeo fired a rifle from a second-floor, rear window about 8 p.m., SWAT Officers Keith Kise and Glenn Thivener returned fire, shooting her, Columbus police said.

The officers were authorized to use deadly force because Demeo was endangering the neighborhood, police said.

Eight spent shell casings were found inside the house along with a second loaded magazine, according to the Franklin County prosecutor’s office.

The Columbus Police Division’s Firearms/police Involved Death Review Board found that Kise and Thivener had correctly followed division policy.

A Franklin County grand jury decided in November not to indict the officers.

Kise, 47, has been with the Police Division for more than 23 years. Thivener, 51, has more than 30 years of experience.