MOUNT VERNON — Knox County saw two fatal law enforcement shootings in a three-day span in late August.
A grand jury on Monday cleared all officers involved in the shootings, according to Knox County Prosecutor Chip McConville.
The first shooting followed a nine-hour standoff in Monroe Township on Aug. 19-20.
Five officers from three Columbus-area law enforcement agencies shot and killed brothers Randy and Bradley Wilhelm, who were reportedly charging the officers with raised weapons after firing multiple rounds at law enforcement vehicles during the standoff. Both brothers died at the scene.
The second shooting took place Aug. 22 in Butler Township. Knox County Sheriff’s Deputy Michael Collins shot and killed Elizabeth Delano, who had reportedly fired six shots at officers on the scene after emerging from a house on a property where she was court-ordered not to be present. Delano also died on the scene.
The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation investigated both officer-involved shootings before turning over evidence to the Knox County prosecutor’s office. McConville said he reviewed the evidence before presenting it to a grand jury Monday.
“This week, the Knox County Grand Jury reviewed two cases involving lethal use of force by law enforcement,” McConville said, “and in both cases decided that the use of force was justified in self-defense or defense of others.”
In these kinds of cases, McConville said, a grand jury is “asked to do the same analysis a trial jury would for use of self defense or the defense of others.”
“That’s basically three things,” he said. “First, that the person who used deadly force was not responsible for creating the situation. Second, that the person who used deadly force believed they were in imminent danger of serious physical harm or death, or that persons with them were. And third … that the person who used deadly force was lawfully present on the scene.”
A grand jury met and deliberated for roughly three hours Monday before coming to its conclusions, McConville said.
Grand jury hearings are private and McConville said he could not discuss specific evidence presented Monday. He said body and dashboard camera footage played a prominent role, along with photographs and other surveillance footage.
In the Wilhelm case, for example, McConville said nearly every officer on the scene wore a body camera, including the five officers who fired the fatal shots. The Ohio State Highway Patrol’s helicopter and other law enforcement drones provided overhead footage of the scene.
“The body camera footage was absolutely essential,” McConville said. “We played probably more than an hour of video during our presentation of (the Wilhelm) case alone. The two cases together took about three hours of grand jury time. So they really got to see all of the relevant facts.”
Knox County Sheriff David Shaffer said Collins was placed on leave for seven days following the Aug. 22 shooting. During that time, the sheriff’s office reviewed the case internally and Collins spoke with a psychologist, as is customary for officers involved in shootings.
Psychological services were also offered to the other officers on the scene that day.
Collins resumed his post after Labor Day, Shaffer said.Â
“Since then, we’ve just been waiting on BCI to finish its investigation, and for the grand jury to make its decision,” Shaffer said.
Now that Collins has been cleared by a grand jury, Shaffer said an internal use-of-force review board will be assembled to review the case. If the board determines Collins followed KCSO policy during the incident, he will be cleared yet again.
“This will be separate from BCI’s investigation. It will be internal. …” Shaffer said. “The use-of-force review board looks at the totality of the circumstances and what took place, to see if our policy was followed.”
McConville was unsure Thursday about whether or not the five officers involved in the Wilhelm shooting had returned to work.
“All of their agencies likely conduct internal reviews (during situations like this), but they’ll generally let the criminal review take place first,” McConville said. “So this will probably clear the way for those internal reviews to be concluded.”
The officer-involved shootings in August were Knox County’s second and third in a 14-month span. Fredericktown Patrolman Josh Jones was cleared by a Knox County grand jury last July after firing at Darren Price, who had pulled a gun on the officer during a traffic stop.
The Knox County prosecutor’s office provided the following background on both August cases in a press release Thursday:
THE WILHELM INVESTIGATION: Randy Wilhelm in August had a warrant for failure to appear in Knox County Common Pleas Court on a pending felony case. His bond had been revoked by the court and bail bondsmen and law enforcement officers were searching for him.
On Aug. 19, a bail bondsman pursuing Wilhelm followed his brother Bradley Wilhelm to the family’s property on Gilchrist Road in Monroe Township. The bondsman’s truck was shot multiple times by someone on the Wilhelm property using a rifle.
The bondsman reported the incident to local law enforcement, who requested assistance from several area agencies, including the Ohio State Highway Patrol Aviation Unit. An Ohio State Highway Patrol helicopter equipped with infrared cameras began to fly over the Wilhelm property.
The aviation officers recorded shots being fired from the property at the helicopter by two subjects on the ground. The aviation units provided reconnaissance while law enforcement units from other agencies arrived to assist in apprehending Wilhelm.
On the morning of Aug. 20, at the request of the Knox County Tactical Response Unit, several agencies supplied officers and armored vehicles to the effort, including the Delaware Tactical Unit, ASORT, the Ohio State Highway Patrol, the Marysville Police Department, the Westerville Police Department and the Dublin Police Department.
After attempting to make contact with Randy Wilhelm by various means, law enforcement units entered the property with a search warrant for Wilhelm and contraband firearms.
Shortly after 9 a.m., officers in armored vehicles approached Randy Wilhelm’s home on Monroe Mills Road, after aviation units informed them Randy and Bradley Wilhelm had been spotted at the house.
An armored vehicle went behind the house and was fired upon multiple times by a person later identified as Randy Wilhelm, disabling the vehicle. A second armored vehicle in the driveway of the house was fired upon by Randy Wilhelm, compromising the bulletproof glass in the windshield.
Moments later, Bradley and Randy Wilhelm sped out of Randy’s driveway in an off-road vehicle, heading across fields toward their mother’s home on Gilchrist Road. They encountered law enforcement officers from the Delaware Tactical Unit and others who were attempting to safely remove Saundra Wilhelm from the property.
Both brothers were shot multiple times by the officers when Randy Wilhelm, who was holding a rifle, began to raise it. Bradley Wlhelm, who was driving the off-road vehicle, had a shotgun next to him and several shotgun shells in his pocket. A significant quantity of rifle ammunition was discovered in the back of the vehicle.
Five law enforcement officers, none from Knox County departments, fired shots in the incident. The officers are members of the Delaware County Sheriff’s Office, Westerville Police Department and Dublin Police Department. Their actions were found to be justified by the grand jury.
THE DELANO INVESTIGATION: Knox County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a call on Zuck Road in Butler Township on Aug. 22. A 911 caller had reported Elizabeth Delano had entered a property and she was under court order not to be there.
When deputies arrived, they found Delano was in the home by herself. In response to requests by law enforcement to come out of the house, she became combative and began firing a shotgun. She later emerged from the house with the shotgun and fired a total of six rounds, some of them aimed in the direction of the deputies.
Delano was shot once by Collins after ignoring a command to drop her shotgun and beginning to raise it again to a firing position. Collins’ use of force was found to be justified in self-defense and defense of other deputies present.
