Local

Dayton racino opens Thursday.

Some stupid bystander called 911 and told the dispatcher the man in the Beavercreek Walmart was trying to load a rifle that looked like an AR15although it was a pellet that looked nothing like an AR15, and that led to cops killing the man. That stupid see something, say something advice got this innocent man killed.

"Conversely, dispatchers advised officers a person, Ritchie, was monitoring the situation. Ritchie said later he was close as 50 feet away from Crawford, and said he moved up to get a closer view, even though that was “not a good idea, but it happened.”"

It doesn't sound like this guy thought the victim was a threat.

"On Tuesday, Michael Wright, the Dayton attorney retained by the Crawford family, saw part of Walmart’s in-store surveillance video footage provided by Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine. DeWine and Wright have agreed they will not provide any descriptions of the events contained in the 6-minute surveillance video.
With Crawford’s father, Wright insisted that the footage demonstrates that Crawford posed no threat to anyone as he shopped inside Walmart."

That's obvious after the fact.

"“He (Crawford) was not doing anything wrong in the store,” Wright told this newspaper. “He wasn’t doing anything menacing. He wasn’t pointing the gun at folks and waving it around. He wasn’t loading it as previously indicated.”
Wright said Crawford was holding in one hand a cell phone and holding with the other hand the airgun rifle."

So the cops lied and the DDN has dutifully repeated the lies to influence the jury pool.

"The Beavercreek police dispatch center received a 911 call reporting a man “waving a rifle-type weapon at customers, including children,” according to police."

Why say "including children"? This 911 caller is suspicious.

"Ritchie, the first of five people to call 911 but the only one who called before the shooting, was on the phone with a police dispatcher as he and his wife, April, watched Crawford, and continued to follow him from a distance."

Neither her nor his wife acted as if the guy was a threat. The first thing a person scared of a guy with a rifle would do is get his wife to safety.

"Crawford was not pointing the rifle as if he were aiming it, but “waving” the device at passers-by, he said."

Not threatening.

"“I heard, ‘Put it down! Put it down!’” April Ritchie recalled. “I heard two shots after I saw him turn. He still had the weapon in his hand.”
“The gentleman decided to swing the rifle to the officer pointing at them,” Ronald Ritchie said this newspaper. “That’s when the officer shot him twice.”"

He should have put it down.

"But Crawfords parents and their attorney said the surveillance video shows the shooting was unjust.
“The surveillance video supported exactly what we believed to be true,” Wright said in a statement. “This video showed that absolutely this young man, John Crawford III, was killed without justification or cause.”
“I watched my son get murdered by law enforcement,” Crawford’s father said after watching the video.
The video does not show any police, nor does it show Crawford interacting with anyone, officers or shoppers, Wright said. It showed him looking at a shelf and talking on a cell phone.
“He was in a isolated location, standing by himself, not facing the direction of the officers,” Wright said. “The video really shows no interaction between him and the police officers.”
He said “ Crawford never approached the officers, never aimed the BB gun at them, or otherwise was aggressive in anyway. He was shot on sight.”
Asked what he saw in the video that might have led to officers shooting Crawford, Wright said, “That’s what we are wondering — why he was shot.”
“The video is going to show everything,” he said. “We are just waiting until that is released.”"

If the video exonerated the police, they would have released it already.

"On Wednesday, Darkow returns to police duty, while Williams remained on administrative leave, according to Stephen McHugh, Beavercreek’s city attorney."

Paid vacation.

More chaos for Huber Heights's music boondoggle.

"More than $1.25 million in VIP area and concession stand upgrades to Huber Heights’ $18 million music center remains on the table, and it’s unclear when — if at all — the city will move forward with the additional costs.
The projects remain in limbo after it was revealed last week in the Administration Committee that a pair of music center change orders approved earlier this year set the stage for these additional costs, but staff did not communicate that information to council at the time.
The two change orders totaling $323,751 impacting the two main concession stands and the VIP concession stand were approved in May and June of this year.
That dollar amount was taken from the contingency fund, which is part of the music center’s $18 million budget, city officials said."

What a joke. The fix was already in, and now they're pretending it wasn't.

Butler Country order striking family services workers to cease and desist.

Lebanon auto supply company locks out union workers.