Woman fatally shot by officer identified
Joy Graham, 47, of Barnesville, has been identified as the person fatally shot by an officer with the Guernsey County Sheriff's Office on June 24.
Sheriff Jeffrey D. Paden previously said his deputies were asked to assist in a vehicle pursuit around 9:30 p.m. that evening on US 22 near Ohio 800 in northeastern portion of the county. Paden said his communications center was notified officers from the Barnesville Police Department were in pursuit of a vehicle being operated by a female wanted on an active arrest warrant for assault on a police officer from a prior incident involving Barnesville Officers.
The pursuit came to an end on Ohio 285 where the vehicle became disabled.
Graham, who was later identified as the driver, reportedly pointed a firearm at officers out the driver's side window of her vehicle and fired several times at officers.
According to Sheriff Jeff Paden, Graham was shot after alternative means of getting her to exit her car such as K-9 extraction and tasers were unsuccessful. She was transported to Southeastern Ohio Regional Medical Center where she died.
The name of of the officer involved in the shooting has not been released. He was not injured and is on administrative leave.
According to Steve Irwin, press secretary for the Ohio Attorney General's Office, the names of officers involved are not released because they are uncharged suspects in the ongoing investigation.
The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) is handling the investigation.
Irwin said depending on the scope and scale of an investigation of an officer involved shooting takes about 400 man hours to complete. He also said depending on the different types of evidence involved, an investigation could take anywhere from several weeks to several months.
Once BCI completes its investigation it will be forwarded to the Guernsey County Prosecutor's Office for review.
Irwin said no updates on the case will be provided during the investigation.
"Although we can't say anything about an investigation that is ongoing, we do post on our website once the case gets adjudicated all of the investigation on our website for transparency," Irwin said. "So eventually this will all become public."
This article originally appeared on The Daily Jeffersonian: Woman fatally shot by officer identified
