MONROE TOWNSHIP — The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) has seized more than 1,000 firearms and over 140,000 rounds of ammunition from the Monroe Township property where brothers Randy A. Wilhelm and Bradley L. Wilhelm were shot and killed by law enforcement Saturday morning, according to a press release issued by the agency Monday.
Knox County Prosecutor Chip McConville has requested the BCI continue searching the property for additional firearms.
“Randy Wilhelm was under indictment for felonious assault and multiple offenses of violence, and he was a fugitive from justice,” McConville explained Monday. “Both of those (circumstances) trigger a weapons-under-disability charge, and so those guns are evidence of that crime and are potentially subject to civil forfeiture.”
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and members of his team accompanied McConville to the Wilhelms’ property on Monday, the county prosecutor said, given the magnitude of the case.
They witnessed an estimated 50 to 60 BCI agents working the scene – taking inventory of the thousands of guns and rounds of ammunition found at 15266 Gilchrist Road in Monroe Township.
McConville said that as of 3 p.m. Monday, agents were still far from documenting every gun on the property. The firearms are primarily sporting shotguns and hunting caliber rifles, the BCI stated. Most of the ammunition is target ammunition for trapshooting.
“Knox County has put a lot of resources into this over the last two years,” McConville said of the investigation into the Wilhelms.
“There have been many, many court hearings, lots of law enforcement boots on the ground from a whole lot of jurisdictions, and a lot of those agencies had some losses to deal with (following the standoff Saturday). Several armored vehicles got shot up.”
McConville said one Marysville SRT vehicle had two bullet dents in its front windshield. They were located in the center of each respective windshield pane – meaning if they’d penetrated the bullet-proof glass, they would likely have struck and potentially killed the officers inside.
“All of those things come into play,” McConville continued, “and all of those firearms were contraband at the time because Randy Wilhelm was not supposed to be in possession of any of them, much less more than a thousand of them.”
The BCI’s investigation is ongoing, according to press secretary Steve Irwin, and it follows a nine-hour standoff early Saturday morning that ended when law enforcement officials shot and killed the brothers, who were allegedly traveling their direction on an ATV with firearms in-hand.
Randy Wilhelm, 56, was under indictment in the Knox County Common Pleas Court for charges including intimidation, menacing by stalking, bribery, felonious assault, and domestic violence, Knox County Sheriff David Shaffer said in a press release Sunday.
During recent investigations involving Randy Wilhelm, Shaffer said detectives had received information from multiple sources that he had a stockpile of firearms and ammunition. He had made threats that he would not be arrested and he had the skills to defend himself.
“Wilhelm was a well-known trap shooter and proficient marksman,” Shaffer stated. “We knew that a barricade situation was a likely possibility if he was on the fenced-in compound that includes three houses and several outbuildings.
“Deputies had been preplanning and conducting surveillance in an attempt to maximize the likelihood of a safe and peaceful resolution. However, based on their actions, the brothers unfortunately did not appear to have any intention of being arrested,” he said.
Both Randy and Bradley Wilhelm, 53, were allegedly involved in an attempted shooting late Friday night that prompted the standoff.
Knox County dispatchers received a call at approximately 11:21 p.m. from a bail bondsman who said that his vehicle had been shot at multiple times by Randy Wilhelm.
The bondsman was attempting to apprehend Wilhelm, who had failed to appear in the Knox County Common Pleas Court on a $100,000 bond. Deputies immediately requested assistance from outside agencies while responding to the scene – a heavily wooded, rural property just west of Apple Valley.
An Ohio State Highway Patrol helicopter provided assistance using night vision equipment. The pilots reported that two people were firing rifles in their direction from the Wilhelm property.
During the incident, a bulk propane truck was moved and parked next to one of the houses on the property. Shaffer said Randy Wilhelm had previously threatened to use the propane tanker as a bomb if law enforcement attempted to apprehend him.
The Knox County Sheriff’s Office Tactical Response Unit received assistance from the Mount Vernon Police ESU, Richland County ASORT, Delaware County Tactical Unit, Marysville SRT, Ohio State Highway Patrol SRT, and the OSHP Aviation Unit.
Law enforcement acted under a search warrant issued by Mount Vernon Municipal Court for Randy Wilhelm and for firearms that Wilhelm was prohibited to possess.
Several of the agencies provided armored vehicles for the effort. Three of the vehicles were struck by gunfire from the two subjects.
At approximately 9:21 a.m. Saturday, the Wilhelm brothers were shot by officers as they were riding in a side-by-side ATV toward officers who were outside of an armored vehicle, Shaffer said. Both men were armed at the time.
McConville said Sunday both men died as a result of the gunshots. They were pronounced dead at the scene, he said.
Shaffer requested the BCI investigate the officer-involved shooting following the incident. Irwin could not provide a timeline Monday for how long the investigation might take, but implied it was far from over, given the size of the property and the amount of evidence involved.
“BCI’s investigation is still very much active and ongoing,” Irwin said. “We’re still in the process of executing search warrants on the property. It’s a very large property with several buildings.”
The BCI serves as the “third-party, independent fact finder” in officer-involved shooting cases across the state, Irwin explained. The agency has been requested to investigate 40 such cases so far this year.
“We are gathering any physical evidence related to the incident, and gathering all facts related to the incident,” he said.
“In the coming days and weeks, we will interview any witnesses or officers who were involved in the shooting that day. We’ll gather cyber data, things like that – any surveillance footage, body camera footage or dashboard camera footage.”
Once the investigation is complete, the BCI will hand all evidence over to McConville.
“He will either make a determination himself on whether or not the use of force was warranted, or he’ll present the evidence to a grand jury and they will either choose to indict the officer or issue a no-bill,” Irwin said.
Investigative documents from the BCI’s case file will become available to the public once the case has been adjudicated.
