Prosecutor to release more details about fatal Lockland police shooting
The Hamilton County Prosecutor's Office is holding a press conference Monday to discuss details about the police shooting of a Woodlawn man last month.
Samuel Mumyarutete, 48, was fatally shot March 19 by a Lockland police officer.
The department said the incident started after a license plate reader identified a stolen vehicle in West Chester. Officers located the vehicle, but the driver sped away, police said.
The vehicle was found crashed near Glendale Milford Road and Evendale Drive, but the suspect was not found there. A suspect was later located and taken into custody, but no one has said if that suspect was the driver or has been charged with anything.
Then a Lockland officer saw Mumyarutete walking along Interstate 75, Lockland Police Chief Michael Ott said in a news release.
"The officer reported the suspect had something in his hands and was refusing to obey commands," Ott said. "The officer attempted to use less lethal force to address the non-compliant suspect, but the Taser didn't stop the suspect."
Ott said Mumyarutete continued to disobey commands, the officer opened fire and struck him in the chest.
Police have not said if Mumyarutete was involved with the vehicle that had been reported stolen.
Mumyarutete's family said in a statement through their lawyer that they believe he may have been an innocent bystander.
Mumyarutete was a refugee fleeing a civil war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, his family said.
"Although we know the police were involved in a high-speed chase in the area, we have received no information that our father was involved in any aspect of that chase," the statement reads. "We believe he may have been an innocent bystander."
Lockland police have reported that the officer was not wearing a body camera at the time of the shooting. The department is working to deploy body cameras for its officers, but that process is still underway.
The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation has been investigating the incident. The agency is called in by police departments across the state to offer an independent investigation of shootings.
The bureau cannot, by law, declare whether an officer committed a crime or committed any wrongdoing. It cannot bring charges against officers. The final bureau report into a shooting or death is turned over to the local elected country prosecutors.
Newly elected Prosecutor Connie Pillich has faced an spike in officer-involved shooting since taking office:
On Feb. 28, officers shot Robert Brandon Eldred, 39, who is accused of charging at sheriff's deputies with an ax in Columbia Township, according to the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office. Pillich said the officers acted in self defense.
On March 2, Cincinnati police shot 31-year-old Patrick Lyons after he charged at officers with a knife, the department said. Pillich called that incident a 'clean shooting.'
Both Eldred and Lyons survived. They both face criminal charges in connection with the incidents.
Some prosecutors in Ohio, including Butler County's Mike Gmoser, take every police shooting to a grand jury to determine if the officers committed any crimes. Pillich said she would address each shooting on a case-by-case basis.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Prosecutor to talk about fatal police shooting of Samuel Mumyarutete
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