Court closed after shot accidentally fired by security officer; reporter arrested in meeting melee
An Ohio courthouse was put on lockdown Thursday morning and closed to the public for the rest of the day after a shot was fired during a dispute at a meeting in the Richland County commissioners’ office.
A security guard reportedly fired his gun by accident, and another man, Ashland Free Press reporter Michael Skidmore, was arrested and charged with felonious assault.
Accounts differ as to exactly what happened after a meeting at the Richland County Administration Building between Skidmore, several others and commissioners got heated. Officials said Skidmore resisted as he was physically removed by officers and one, apparently by accident, discharged his gun, according to the Mansfield News Journal, the Richland Source and WMFD.
“The one shot that was fired didn’t hit anybody, and we have the Bureau of Criminal Investigation, BCI, coming in from the state to process the crime scene,” Sheriff Steve Sheldon told reporters at a press conference outside the courthouse. He said two security officers were injured, one suffering a bite wound to his face and the other abrasions.
Witness Wayne McDowell told the Richland Source that Skidmore was standing against a wall, with a miniature camera hanging from his neck, when the three security officers arrived at the meeting around 9:30 a.m.
“One of the officers approached Skidmore and he grabbed the camera. And so Skidmore hit back and a tussle ensued … then the guy took his gun out and I thought he’d shot him,” McDowell told the newspaper. “I took off running.”
Claims that Skidmore had touched a secretary at the meeting as he leaned in to try to take a photo of her computer screen were “blown out of proportion,” McDowell told the Source, adding: “He might have brushed her with his arm.”
