Marshals: Suspect who attacked officers was shot dead

Justin Dennis
·2 min read
3

[Editor’s note: This article has been updated to reflect that police are now describing the weapon allegedly used against officers as a wooden table leg.]

LORAIN, Ohio (WJW) — Members of a U.S. Marshals task force, while serving a warrant, shot and killed a fugitive they said attacked officers with an improvised weapon.

It happened just before 8:30 a.m. on Thursday at a home in the 900 block of West 21st Street, near the Beech Avenue intersection, according to a news release from Lorain police Lt. Jake Morris.

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There, members of the Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force were serving a federal arrest warrant for Derrick Smith, 34, of Lorain, according to the release.

Smith was wanted on a violent offense and had “a history of violence,” said Brian Fitzgibbon, chief deputy of the U.S. Marshals Cleveland office.

While in an upstairs bedroom of the home, Smith reportedly attacked the arresting officers with a wooden table leg, according to the release.

Smith struck at least two officers, U.S. Marshal Pete Elliott told FOX 8 News later Thursday. A third officer was also injured in an unknown manner, he said.

“Unfortunately, one of our officers had to use deadly force in order to prevent the suspect from performing any further damage to our officers on scene,” Fitzgibbon said.

Authorities gave Smith medical attention at the scene but he was “regrettably” pronounced dead, reads the release.

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It’s currently unclear who fired the fatal shot, Elliott told FOX 8 News.

Two officers suffered “serious but non-life-threatening” injuries, according to the news release. All three officers were transported to a hospital for treatment but have since been released.

U.S. Marshals’ policy requires the names of employees under investigation to be withheld until the investigation is complete, according to the release.

Lorain Police Department is now investigating what happened before the gunfire. Local authorities continued to investigate and process the scene until about 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, according to the release.

Morris said the full investigation is expected to take weeks.

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