Ohio woman accidentally shot in head, killed during Chillicothe drug raid

[FreakinDJ]

Ohio woman accidentally shot in head, killed during Chillicothe drug raid

CHILLICOTHE, Ohio - Authorities say a woman was killed in an accidental shooting by a law-enforcement officer during a drug raid in rural central Ohio.

A prosecutor in Ross County, south of Columbus, said 35-year-old Krystal Barrows, was accidentally shot in the head Wednesday night after officers entered a home to conduct the raid.

Prosecutor Matt Schmidt tells the Chillicothe Gazette that it wasn't clear whether the gunfire was the result of a weapon malfunction or user error. The county sheriff's office wouldn't answer questions about the shooting.

A sheriff's office news release said six people were charged during the raid and "large amounts" of heroin were found, along with cash and guns.



http://www.newsnet5.com/news/state/ohio-woman-accidentally-shot-in-head-killed-during-chillicothe-drug-raid

[hobbit709]

1. And one of the druggies will be charged even if ballistics shows it was a police bullet.

Fucking drug wars.

[firsttimer]

2. War on drugs claims another victim .......executed by the police

I feel safer already knowing the police are protecting us from these drug people.

[spanone]

3. 'The county sheriff's office wouldn't answer questions about the shooting'

[Kaleva]

4. Live in a trailer with assault rifles, hand guns, heroin, cash and suspected stolen property,..

one shouldn't be surprised when such things as said in the article take place.

[tabasco]

5. Your comment is depraved.

If you stand behind it, so are you.

[Kaleva]

6. Do you think there ever was a possibility anything good was going to come out of this?

Living with other's who are armed to the teeth with handguns and assault rifles and who deal in heroin?

[leftyladyfrommo]

10. I don't think it's depraved. It's just true.

It's not right. No one should ever be shot down like that. Even in the middle of a drug raid.

But if you choose to live in a place full of guns and illegal drugs then you have to be aware of the danger.

[tabasco]

17. Yes, it's true. The actual danger turned out to be the police.

You see, that's a problem.

[leftyladyfrommo]

37. That's always been the problem

when you live where people are dealing heroin. And those people know the risk. Or you can get killed by rival drug dealers. That is a horribly riskty life syle.

There isn't anything new about that.

[tabasco]

11. Do you believe we "should not be surprised"

when police kill people with no justification?

[Kaleva]

15. She could have been killed by rival drug dealers, desperate drug users...

or been sentenced to prison for a long time. Nobody should think there was even a remote chance that anything positive would come out of this.

[tabasco]

18. Please try to stay on topic.

It was the police that killed this woman.

[Kaleva]

22. She'd be alive today if she made some better life choices

Associating with people armed with assault rifles and who deal in heroin isn't a good life choice.

[Comrade Grumpy]

23. She'd be alive today if a reckless cop hadn't accidentally shot her in the head.

She didn't die of a heroin overdose.

She wasn't shot by some low-life with an assault rifle.

"Associating with people" isn't generally a capitol offense.

I guess she's be alive to day if that killer cop had made some better life choices (as in practicing gun safety).

Your post is a classic example of blaming the victim, and certain worthy of a Republican congressional candidate. It rings a little tinny here, though.

[NuclearDem]

33. Guilt by association isn't punishable by death.

Make it about her all you want, the police are the ones that killed her.

The fact that you know absolutely nothing about why she was even there in the first place makes that comment even more despicable. It's just as likely that she didn't want to be there at all, and circumstances kept her from leaving.

[ScreamingMeemie]

41. This is victim blaming...

One, we don't know what her "life choices" were.

[Comrade Grumpy]

24. Well, heck, let's just summarily execute all drug users. Because they are apparently doomed.

Kaleva knows this.

[DonP]

26. It's not the drugs, it's the guns that doomed them

Note that the poster's comments are all about the guns in the house, not the drugs.

Some people on DU seem to think summary execution is justified if they have guns and it seems to be an approved level of commentary.

I must have missed that part of the party platform.

[TransitJohn]

14. Wow.

I remember when DU was one of the bastions of liberalism on the 'net.

[RC]

16. Those days are long gone.

All it takes anymore to claim to have voted for Obama (at least once) and you're in.

[Tom Rinaldo]

21. We can guess what actually happened. Some people probably know what happened

But we don't. That is the bottom line. It is fine for all of us to discuss the issues this tragedy raise for us, but I won't condemn someone for being reactionary off the cuff for noting that that woman seemingly was exposed to and/or participating in a dangerous lifestyle, any more than I will condemn her off the cuff for being where she was that night. There is too much that I don't know, that I probably never will know.

I think there is a horrific misguided "war on drugs" taking place in this country. I also think there are are some very dangerous predators out there who are willing to terrorize innocent people in a neighborhood to protect their drug turf and the profits they milk from it. We can talk about how U.S. drug policy fostered the rise of violent drug gangs in Mexico for example, but there are organized gangs beheading people down there now, and not just other drug gang members. Should we oppose a Mexican police raid on one of their safe houses? That's not so close to home of course, but drug dealers in American cities kill innocent bystanders in drive by shootings. I don't know the full story about why that drug raid was staged, and I don't know how what went down went down. I am not defending the police action that resulted in this woman being killed, I'm just admitting what I do not know. I can guess, we all can.

[FreakinDJ]

27. The "War on Drugs" didn't force some "Wanna Be Rambo" to pull the trigger

But I blame the Fucked Up Police State Mentality for already clearing the cop of all wrong doing.

Criminally Negligent or Not - Tax Dollars should not be funding his exploits nor pension

[Tom Rinaldo]

29. My reasonably informed guess is that you are right

I think it more likely that there is a coverup than not, or at least that the cop in question did not have the degree of control he needed to perform his function without killing someone who did not directly threaten him. It is conceivable that there is another possible explanation - someone knocking his hand or whatever, but given how these things generally play out - not so likely.

I have a leftist musician friend who is an ex-cop. I get that there are times when cops feel like they are operating in the equivalent of a war zone, be that a spontaneous outbreak of violence or a planned operation, one planned with or without adequate justification. In the latter case though the line officer usually doesn't get to make that call, he is informed of his mission - much like a line soldier is.

There is a middle ground possible between prosecution and continued employment and a guaranteed pension. Some cops really should be held criminally negligent for their specific acts, while others fall short of fulfilling their responsibilities safely without rising to the level of criminal intent or negligence. However they still can be found incompetent to remain in that position and should not be given the chance to blow it again, with human life at risk, if they can't handle an admittedly difficult job.

[Egalitarian Thug]

25. Just another example of DU's far right fringe,

Putting a 'D' on bad republican ideas for going on twelve years, now.

[FatBuddy]

44. fringe?

[Logical]

19. Wow, justifying the cops killing someone. How kind of you. Bad people deserve to be shot? n-t

[PowerToThePeople]

32. I will support your statement

People read way more into statements than what one writes.

No surprise that something very bad happened at all.

Your statement in no way appears (to me) to support summary execution. So many people here have itchy trigger fingers.

[Kaleva]

34. She didn't deserve to die and the cop needs to be investigated.

All I'm saying is that it ought not be a surprise that this ended in tragedy. Even if she hadn't been shot or there were no shots fired, she might have been looking at a long prison sentence and that in of itself would be a tragedy especially when one considers she has three young children.

[Orrex]

40. You're right--she was asking for it.

She was probably wearing lipstick and high heels at the time, too.

[FatBuddy]

43. none of the things you mentioned are capital offenses

[leftyladyfrommo]

7. Don't expect any kind of apology.

Hell will freeze over first.

[seveneyes]

8. weapon malfunction or user error

Weapon malfunction my ass. It sounds like it functioned as desired after the overzealous killer pulled the trigger. Once again, a law enforcement official murders another citizen and will walk away without a scratch. There can not be any excuse for this useless war on drug users.

[dlwickham]

9. was she in the home that was raided

[tosh]

28. Yes...I followed the link and then another link

because I had the same question. She was in the home that was raided.

http://www.chillicothegazette.com/article/20131220/NEWS01/312200002/Six-arrested-multicounty-drug-investigation

[G_j]

12. how does one "accidentally"

shoot someone in the head??

[Spirochete]

31. Like this, I suppose...

In this case, though, she probably itched her nose and the trigger-happy narc pulled the trigger.

[ileus]

13. poor trigger discipline

Wonder if it was a handgun or rifle discharge, manual safety or "safe action"....either way someone had their meathook on the trigger when I shouldn't have been.


This is what we get for accepting a police state as normal.

[Logical]

20. Imagine accidentally shooting a cop. Think that would be jail time? nt

[madinmaryland]

30. The deputy who fired the gun was actually outside of the house.

Sounds more like a Barney Fife to me.

The Ross County sheriff’s deputy who is believed to have unintentionally fired his weapon from outside the home, fatally injuring Barrows, remains on paid administrative leave while the shooting is investigated.

http://www.chillicothegazette.com/article/20131220/NEWS01/312200002/Six-arrested-multicounty-drug-investigation?nclick_check=1

[FreakinDJ]

35. paid administrative leave = paid vacation

[madinmaryland]

36. I can't disagree with you on that point...

I do find it odd how a gun accidently goes off and hits someone in the house. It apparently could have hit anyone. Sounds like a Barney Fife type of move. Hopefully they have taken his gun away from him.

[Kaleva]

38. One of the men arrested in the raid hanged himself while in jail

"A drug-trafficking suspect hanged himself with a sheet in the Pickaway County jail on Tuesday.

Raymond D. Tackett Jr., 32, of Chillicothe, was discovered hanging in his cell at 4:33 a.m. and was pronounced dead at Berger Hospital in Circleville, said Lt. Troy Rine, the sheriff’s office jail administrator."

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2013/12/25/Pickaway-County-jail-suicide.html

[Iggo]

48. Mm-hmm.

[lpbk2713]

39. "Woops, sorry 'bout that"

Heaven help us from Keystone Kops who shouldn't even have a night stick in their hands.

[FatBuddy]

42. YAY! cops!

i'm sure they were just delivering milk

[Egalitarian Thug]

45. +1 Yay cops. n/t

[Savannahmann]

46. Wish I could rec the reply

[99Forever]

47. But.. but ... but...

... one brought milk.