OFF THE WIRE
Carrie Whitaker
news.cincinnati.com
Cincinnati Police Chief James Craig, right, stands with Mayor Mark Mallory and City Manager Milton Dohoney, as he addresses the media about an officer involved shooting during a press conference held at District 1 headquarters on Friday, Dec. 30, 2011. / The Enquirer/Gary Landers
DOWNTOWN — A Cincinnati police sergeant killed a man at an apartment building in Evanston Thursday evening, after the man pulled out a black gun, yanked back the slide and advanced toward a team of officers, Cincinnati Police Chief James Craig confirmed Friday.Police thought it was a semi automatic handgun, Craig said. But at the end of the 3-hour ordeal that involved a police SWAT team, 54-year-old Ronnie Pittman was found dead inside the apartment with a BB gun, Craig said.
Police arrived at the two-story apartment building in the 3400 block of Montgomery Road about 5:45 p.m. Thursday after a neighbor overheard Pittman – also known as Ronnie Hunt – in the backyard threatening to kill someone and handling a gun, Craig said at an 11 a.m. press conference at police headquarters Friday.
Less than 24 hours after the shooting, evidence indicated Sgt. Daryl Grant, the officer who shot Pittman, and his team of four officers, were afraid for their lives, Craig said.
In that case, Grant’s actions would most likely be justified, Craig said.
Cincinnati Police Department’s Internal Investigation’s Section and Homicide Unit will build cases to determine the final outcome. Their findings will be presented to the Hamilton County Prosecutor’s Office to consider whether Grant should face criminal charges, a process that in recent years has taken a few months.
As with any case where a subject is killed in a confrontation with police, two other investigations, one by the city’s Firearm Discharge Board and another by the Citizens Complaint Authority, will also be launched. Those investigations can stretch the better part of a year.
Thursday was Pittman’s birthday and he had been seen earlier in the day acting bizarre and handling a gun, Craig said, discussing the event for an audience of local journalists and the police department’s top brass.
Standing with Mayor Mark Mallory, City Manager Milton Dohoney and Councilman and retired Cincinnati cop Cecil Thomas, Craig said a witness overheard Pittman say he wanted to die and was “going to shoot up the place.”
Grant is a supervising officer in District 2 and put together a solid tactical plan when police got the call, Assistant Chief Lt. Col. James Whalen said after the press conference.
“Grant is a very good employee,” said Whalen, head of the Patrol Bureau and SWAT commander. “He clearly took a lead role in a dangerous situation.”
When officers arrived, Pittman emerged from his basement level apartment a few steps down from ground level, Craig explained in the press conference, displaying photos of the scene in his presentation.
Pittman was ordered to surrender to police but pulled the weapon from behind him, according to the rendition of events by the officers on the scene, Craig said.
Grant ordered Pittman to drop the gun several times and when Pittman didn’t comply and continued to act threatening toward the officers, Grant fired one shot.
Pittman continued forward.
Grant fired again.
Neither time was Grant sure he struck Pittman, Craig said.
At that point, Pittman retreated into his apartment and the SWAT team was called.
They used caution for their safety and the safety of a woman they believed might be in the apartment, Craig said.
With the sky already dark, SWAT members tried to call Pittman out of the building – knowing only his alias, they called Ronnie Hunt over a loud speaker. They used a variety of methods, including a robot, to determine whether the scene was safe for officers, Craig said.
At some point police learned the woman they feared in danger had been taken to a hospital earlier in the week for a medical condition.
Around 8:30 p.m., SWAT determined it was safe to enter and found Pittman dead inside. He had apparently died from two gun shot wounds, one to his neck and another to his upper torso, Craig said.
Pittman had a voluminous criminal history, including a six-year stint in an Ohio prison from 1992 to 1998 for tampering with evidence, according to a spokesman with the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.
Craig said city investigators have uncovered 15 felony arrests with five convictions, including illegal possession of weapons, 12 misdemeanor arrests with nine convictions and 53 traffic citations in Pittman’s past. Craig said he went by a variety of aliases.
It took several hours for police to release Pittman’s identity, because of their difficulty tracking down family.
Christopher Smitherman, president of the Cincinnati branch of the NAACP and a city councilman, emailed NAACP members Friday morning about the shooting. He urged them to “not rush to judgment until we have the facts. We are praying for the families of the victim and the police officer(s) involved.”
Janice Morse, Jennifer Baker and Jane Prendergast contributed to this report.