Ohio police fatally shot a man they say drove at them. Family says he was just trying to clean his dead grandmother’s home
WLWT, WYOMING POLICE DEPARTMENT, FAMILY PHOTOS, CNN
By Sara Smart and Amanda Watts, CNN
Police investigating a burglary report in Ohio fatally shot a man they allege drove a minivan toward them — an account disputed by his relatives, who say he didn’t drive at them, and that he was just there to clean out his dead grandmother’s apartment.
Relatives of Joe Frasure, 28, say they want more details from authorities about what happened Monday in the Cincinnati suburb of Wyoming, including body-camera video.
The incident is under investigation, and body-camera footage is expected to be released Friday, when a prosecutor’s office also is scheduled to hold a news conference, police said.
“I want answers,” Frasure’s mother, Lisa Fisher, told CNN affiliate WLWT this week. “I want the body cam and everything.”
The incident happened early Monday, after law enforcement officers responded to a 911 call shortly after 12:30 a.m. that reported two or three people were trying to break into an apartment in Wyoming, police in that city said in a news release.
When officers arrived, they “encountered possible suspects” at the rear of the building who they say “disregarded repeated commands from the officers,” according to the release.
In a video statement, Wyoming Police Chief Brooke Brady said Frasure was in a minivan and did not obey commands to get out.
The minivan reversed at high speed, hit a tree, and then “accelerated rapidly at our officers,” Brady said.
Two of the three Wyoming officers on scene fired shots toward the minivan, striking Frasure, according to a statement from the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office.
Frasure was transported to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, where he died on Tuesday, the Hamilton County prosecutor’s office told CNN.
“Our officers answer calls like this every day to protect the public and to stop crime,” Brady said in her video statement, urging patience as the investigation moves forward. “The work they do is hard and it requires them to make split-second decisions, just as they did in this case.”
But family members insist Frasure did not mean to harm the officers — and had a valid reason to be at the complex.
He was with his father and sister to clean out the apartment of his deceased grandmother, his half-brother, Joseph L. Frasure Jr., told CNN.
Joe Frasure Sr., his father, told WLWT that his son was not driving toward the officers.
“I don’t care what they say — it was not pointed at them,” Frasure Sr. said.
The three Wyoming officers who responded have been placed on administrative leave, according to a statement from the City of Wyoming on Thursday. The Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the shooting.
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