Cops Stage Drug Raid—And, Oh Yeah, Accidentally Kill a Woman

You know cops are trying to
gloss over a bit of bad news when they write up an accidental fatal
shooting by their own in a passive voice and bury it at the end of
a press release. That’s what the Ross County, Ohio, Sheriff’s
Office did last week, when announcing a drug raid gone really,
really wrong. The press release talks up the discovery of “large
amounts of what is presumed to be heroin,” cash, and firearms. Oh.
And did we mention a woman got shot in the head? And died?

From the press
release’s very last paragraph (PDF):

During the execution of the search warrant, an adult female at
the residence suffered an apparent gunshot wound, and was
transported from the scene by medical helicopter. Pursuant to
policy, the Ross County Sheriff’s Office called BCI to the scene to
review the execution of the warrant.

Oh. That sounds unfortunate. The “bad guys” must have gone hog
wild, just blasting away, right.

Not so much. Buckeye Country 105.5
tells us:

A Ross County law enforcement official is on paid leave after
firing a shot that eventually killed a woman during a drug
raid.

Members of the U.S. 23 Task Force raided a known drug house
along U.S. 23 in southern Ross County late Wednesday night. As soon
as they got inside, they found a woman with a head wound on the
couch in the living room.

“It was discovered later that a bullet had accidentally
discharged from outside the door of the trailer and went through
the outside wall of the trailer and into the living room,” said
Ross County Sheriff George Lavender.

The bullet struck Krystal Barrows in the head. She was flown to
OSU Wexner Medical Center in Columbus, but she died from her
wounds.

Sgt. Brett McKnight (pictured) remains on administrative leave
while the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation exonerates investigates him
for letting off the shot and killing Krystal Barrows. He apparently
flinched when his buddies set off flash bang grenades in hopes of
startling everybody. They succeeded in spades, it would seem, with
special impact on police officers who haven’t mastered the whole
“keep your finger off the trigger until you’re ready to shoot”
rule.

The raid came as part of a Sheriff’s Office anti-drug effort
called
Stop Trafficking or Pay the Price. Sheriff George Lavender
tells the
Chillicothe Gazette:

“We started the STOPP initiative, and we’ve got to continue with
that. We have traffickers poisoning our children along with our
adults,” Lavender said. “So many families have family members
touched by drugs, and they’re not bad people. These users aren’t
bad people. They’re addicted. This is a sickness like people
(don’t) realize.”

If people aren’t willing to get over their “sickness,” Sheriff
Lavender is willing to make them pay a very high price, indeed.