Sheriff defends actions of authorities in fatal standoff
ZANESVILLE, Ohio — The Muskingum County sheriff on Thursday rejected claims that authorities could have done more to prevent a man from being fatally shot by a deputy during a standoff near Zanesville last weekend.
Sheriff Matt Lutz said that authorities did everything they could to detain Arthur West Jr. peacefully on Saturday night.
“I’m not sure that anything could have been done that we didn’t do, based on the action that he took,” Lutz said.
Deputies were called to the Springfield Township home of West’s girlfriend, Sabrina Wofter, on a report by Wofter of domestic violence.
In calls between Wofter and a dispatcher, Wofter said she was hiding outside. She said West was firing a gun and might be holding her children hostage. Once on the scene, authorities learned the children had run to a neighbor’s house and were never in the house with West.
A negotiator with the sheriff’s office at the scene talked to West by phone, but West reportedly fired more shots. He told the negotiator he was going to commit “suicide by cop” and smashed his phone. West then broke a window and pointed a gun at deputies. One deputy fired a shot, striking West in the chest, according to the sheriff’s office.
Wofter said earlier this week that West had a history of violence but didn’t deserve to die. She questioned whether deputies were impatient with him. If West had been given an opportunity to talk with his father or brother, he might have come out of the house, she said.
West mentioned his father during the standoff, Lutz said, but he smashed the phone before deputies or negotiators could get a phone number to reach him.
“We would have done anything possible to have a different conclusion than we had that night,” Lutz said.
The name of the deputy who fired the shot hasn’t been released pending an investigation by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, Lutz said. The deputy remains on paid administrative leave.