SYLVANIA, Ohio — It's certainly unusual circumstances for the Sylvania Township Police Department having two officer-involved shootings in a short time frame.
Police Chief Paul Long discussed Monday's officer-involved shooting saying it's nothing a chief wants to have happen, but police work is unpredictable.
An officer opened fire Monday morning after a suspect allegedly rammed his cruiser. This marks the second officer-involved shooting in the department in less than six months.
"You just don't know and unfortunately we've had two incidences in the last four months and it's not a phone call I like getting. No officer wants to do it, believe me," Chief Long said.
The two incidents include the June 8 shooting, after police responded to a domestic violence call.
The other was an armed robbery from February when police were called to a gas station about a suspicious car in the parking lot.
"You don't ever want these instances to happen but you're dictated by what actions your circumstances dictate, the suspects take and what you have to do. You hope they don't come around, it's unusual. Like here, we've had a couple in a few months and then you go five years, you get none," the Chief said.
Specifically for Long's department, he said it had been a few years since the last officer-involved shooting before February's incident.
The chief wants us to understand, each day officers have to make split second decisions. He says officers don't want to have to use their weapons and more often than not, will go out of their way to make sure they don't.