Preble County officers shot and killed 23-year-old Clayton Helriggle during a drug raid on a West Alexandria, Ohio farmhouse on the evening of 27 September 2002.[1][2] Helriggle lived in the house with four others, and Lewisburg police Sergeant Kent Moore shot him as he came down the back stairway to the kitchen.[1] He died within minutes of a single shotgun wound to the chest in the arms of a roommate.[2]
Nearly 30 officers in body armor and riot shields stormed the house with a battering ram and stun grenades after a convicted felon told prosecutors that Helriggle was dealing marijuana from the farmhouse.[2] Police believed the house was the center of a major marijuana-sales operation, but officers found only a small amount of marijuana.[1] A later county investigation concluded Helriggle had been carrying the 9 mm handgun found near his body, though his roommates said he had been holding a plastic cup.[1][2]
Inquiries
A Preble County grand jury declined to indict any officers involved in the raid or any of the home’s residents.[1] The warrant rested on the felon informant, who later admitted he had lied about some facts and wrongly told a grand jury that Helriggle sold drugs from the house.[1] Reviewers found wrong dates in the affidavit, little surveillance of the house and no controlled drug purchases there.[1] The county’s Emergency Services Unit was later disbanded after officers, on lawyers’ advice, refused to cooperate with a review that also faulted their four hours of tactical training in the nine months before the raid.[1] Helriggle’s family filed a federal civil suit against the county and 20 individuals, alleging wrongful death and violation of his civil rights.[1][2]