No criminal charges will be filed against police in 2023 shooting of Girard man
The Trumbull County Prosecutor’s Office released on Thursday the results of a more than a yearlong investigation involving the office, the Ohio State Highway Patrol and the Ohio Attorney General’s Bureau of Criminal Investigations into the March 21, 2023, early morning, officer-involved fatal shooting of Fred Henry Wild III, 50, of Girard.
Law enforcement officers from several jurisdictions fired the shots that killed Wild as he drove a pickup truck with a snowplow attachment toward them while trying to escape a Brookfield cabin along state Route 7.
Why will no criminal charges be filed in the case?
In an 88-page report which details Wild’s criminal record and the days leading up to the shooting, Prosecutor Dennis Watkins stated no criminal charges will be filed against the officers. The report also gives the reasons why the case is not going to be presented to a grand jury or investigated further.
“This office finds there can be no other conclusion other than the fact that the officers’ use of force was reasonable,” Watkins stated.
The report outlined a “clear pattern” of Wild being someone who would rather evade authority rather than facing arrest and incarceration. In the days prior to the shooting, Wild, who was facing OVI cases in both Lake and Trumbull counties, had removed a court-ordered alcohol-monitoring ankle bracelet. His bond was revoked March 14, triggering an arrest warrant.
The report stated three “Graham Factors” were used to assess the officers’ use of force – the seriousness of the offense, the immediate threat and resistance or evading arrest. Watkins stated that Wild had committed three felonies in the three days leading up to the shooting.
Wild encountered Liberty police on March 18, but on March 20, a Lordstown 911 report alerted
authorities about Wild’s presence there. He left in an orange Dodge truck leading police on a chase that reached speeds of 110 mph through multiple jurisdictions, including Warren city, Leavittsburg, Champion, Bazetta and Howland. The pursuit ended when Wild’s truck got stuck on railroad tracks on the Merwin Chase Road overpass in Brookfield in mid-afternoon.
Hours later, a 911 call from a Brookfield property owner reported that Wild was trespassing in a cabin.
By dark, police surrounded the cabin, and Wild attempted to drive the stolen truck toward officers, and ignoring their commands to stop, he was fatally shot about 1:16 a.m. March 21.
In the report, Watkins noted an “immediate threat” to officers, because of the belief Wild may have found a weapon inside the cabin, which was surrounded by nine officers in “total darkness.”
When the shooting occurred, there were at least three officers within a few feet of being struck by the pickup truck. The report noted the force and the speed of the truck at the time of the shooting because of the track marks left in the gravel.
Suit filed against police by family
On Feb. 14, Wild’s estate filed a civil suit in U.S. Northern District Court seeking damages of $25,000 alleging the use of deadly force was not necessary. In his report, Watkins noted the existence of the civil suit but declined comment.