Moraine Police Chief Craig Richardson said via email the decision to re-activate John Howard and Jerry Knight was made “based on the known facts” and after the officers passed psychological evaluations.
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The police chief said his department’s internal investigation into the actions of Howard and Knight in the Oct. 20 early morning fatal shooting of 23-year-old Jamarco McShann is awaiting toxicology results.
The state’s criminal investigation, requested by the Moraine Police Division, is also ongoing and “other records” — including a final coroner’s report — are needed, according to the Ohio attorney general’s office.
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Howard and Knight were placed on administrative leave the day of the shooting, a move which is standard procedure. The attorney general’s office said returning officers to work after they were involved in a shooting is a “departmental decision” and said it does not track how often it occurs before the state completes a criminal investigation into the issue.
Richardson said Howard and Knight “passed a ‘fitness for duty’ psychological exam and were ready to return to duty” about 30 days after the first fatal police-involved shooting in Moraine’s 62-year history.
On Nov. 20, they returned to “administrative duty” and were put on “full duty” Sunday, he said via email.
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“Our investigation is still ongoing, but at approximately the 30-day mark, we made a decision based on the known facts,” according to Richardson. “Those facts give every indication that the officers responded appropriately and reasonably.”
McShann was killed after Howard and Knight responded separately to a report of a suspicious vehicle outside an apartment complex on Pinnacle Road.
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Police said the two officers shot McShann after he pointed a loaded semi-automatic pistol at them and failed to heed their warnings. McShann died from “multiple” gunshot wounds, according to the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office.
McShann was “unjustifiably shot and killed” and “until the family gets answers and there’s a full investigation” having Howard and Knight return to work is “not acceptable,” said Andrew M. Stroth, managing partner with Action Injury Law Group.
Stroth said his firm specializes in police shootings and “we believe that there’s a pattern and practice within that police department and believe those officers unjustifiably shot and killed Jamarco McShann and are not fit” to return to work.
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“The family wants a full investigation to get to the truth of what happened,” Stroth said. “And it’s unacceptable that these officers are back at work as usual as if nothing happened. We think they violated the constitutional rights of Jamarco.”
Howard, 47, is a 19-year veteran of the department. Knight, 23, was hired in March 2015. Both have consistently earned strong semi-annual performance reviews, according to an analysis of more than 200 pages in the officers’ files obtained through a public information request by this news organization.
The day of the shooting, Moraine police asked for the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, which works under the attorney general’s office, to oversee the case.
In early November, an attorney general’s office spokeswoman said the state’s criminal investigation in the case was expected to last into December.
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That office is still awaiting “other records,” according to attorney general spokeswoman Dorcas Jones.
Upon completing the investigation, BCI will hand over its findings to the Montgomery County Prosecutor’s Office, which will decide whether to seek charges, according to the attorney general’s office.
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