April 25, 2024
WILMINGTON, Ohio (AP) — An armed man clad in body armor who tried to breach the FBI’s Cincinnati office on Thursday was shot and killed by police after he fled the scene and engaged in an hourslong standoff in a rural part of the state, the Ohio State Highway Patrol said.
The suspect was identified as Ricky Shiffer, 42, according to the law enforcement official.
Shiffer “attempted to breach” the visitor screening area at the FBI office at around 9:15 a.m., and fled when agents confronted him, according to federal authorities’ account of the incident. After fleeing onto Interstate 71, he was spotted by a trooper and fired shots as the trooper pursued him, said Lt. Nathan Dennis, an Ohio State Highway Patrol spokesperson, at a press conference.
Shiffer left the interstate north of Cincinnati and abandoned his car on rural roads, where he exchanged gunfire with police and sustained injuries, although no one else was hurt, Dennis said.
Shiffer was shot after he raised a gun toward police at around 3 p.m. Thursday, Dennis said. The fatal encounter with police happened after negotiations failed and police tried unsuccessfully to use “less lethal tactics,” Dennis said, without providing details.
State highway workers blocked off roads leading to the scene as a helicopter flew over the area. Officials locked down a mile radius near the interstate and urged residents and business owners to lock doors and stay inside. The interstate has been reopened.
