Wadsworth High School Lockdown – A person was shot Saturday night by sheriff’s deputies in Wadsworth in a case that is still under investigation.
Students and adults at the Wadsworth homecoming dance that evening were placed under temporary lockdown at the high school due to a belief that the individual was heading there.
At around 9:11 p.m., deputies from the Medina County Sheriff’s office were brought in to assist the Wadsworth Police and the Wayne County Sheriff’s office with a call of an allegedly suicidal person, according to the Medina County Sheriff’s office.
Initial information received by the safety forces led deputies to believe that the person may have been armed and was threatening “suicide by cop.”
Suicide by cop, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, is when someone deliberately places themselves or others at grave risk to compel the use of deadly force by police officers or other safety forces. Wadsworth Police and Wadsworth City School officials placed Wadsworth High School on lockdown during the school’s homecoming as a precautionary measure.
At a little after 10 p.m., the person’s vehicle was spotted on Silvercreek Road in Wadsworth, according to the Medina Sheriff’s Department. Shortly after the vehicle was stopped, the person exited the vehicle with a suspected firearm.
Deputies engaged the person and fired their service weapon. The individual died at the scene after life-saving measures were attempted by law enforcement and EMS.
The investigation has been turned over to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, which could not be reached for comment on Sunday. The Medina County coroner’s office referred comments to the Ohio BCI or the Medina County Sheriff’s Department.