Fatal shooting of Ohio officer during training being investigated as homicide, records say
A state employee is being investigated for reckless homicide in the shooting death of an Ohio prison lieutenant during a firing range training session, according to a report released Monday by the Ohio State Highway Patrol.
The employee's name is redacted in the patrol's report. He has not been charged.
However, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction said Monday that David Pearson, a special operations commander, was placed on administrative leave while the shooting death is investigated.
Pearson started as a correction officer in May 2005 and has been in his current role since January 2021.
The highway patrol, which investigates incidents on state property, released a heavily redacted 18-page report and did not include witness statements requested by The Columbus Dispatch. However, the report identifies the names of a dozen witnesses and some basic details of what happened that day. Witnesses reached Monday said they were instructed not to talk to the media.
The shooting on April 9 at the ODRC's Correctional Training Facility firing range at Orient in Pickaway County killed 43-year-old ODRC Lt. Rodney Osborne. Osborne worked on special operations teams and at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville.
Osborne suffered a single gunshot wound to the center of his upper chest, according to autopsy photos reviewed by The Dispatch at the Franklin County Coroner's Office. He leaves behind his wife and three children.
After the shooting, colleagues performed CPR on Osborne and took him in a pickup to Mount Carmel Grove City hospital, where he was pronounced dead a little after noon.
ODRC Director Annette Chambers-Smith said in a prepared statement the day of the shooting that the "incident appears to be a tragic accident."
The prisons department has not produced several records requested by The Dispatch, but said personnel files for Osborne and Pearson would be released as soon as they're ready.
Laura Bischoff is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio prison officer's shooting death investigated as reckless homicide
