Law Enforcement Exchange Gun Fire in trailer park in Enon, Ohio

Slain officer Suzanne Hopper

ENON, Ohio — A sheriff's deputy investigating a report of gunfire at a trailer park was shot dead Saturday, and the shooting suspect was killed after a gun battle with police, authorities said. A police officer was wounded.

The slain deputy was married and was the mother of two children, Clark County Sheriff Gene Kelly said. He didn't release the names of the deputy or the suspect killed in the standoff in Enon Beach, about 50 miles west of Columbus.

The deputy was shot as she tried to photograph a footprint in the mobile-home park, which sits near a highway, Kelly said.

"Our deputy never had the opportunity to return fire or take cover," he said at a press conference.

Police officers were trying to retrieve the deputy's body when the suspect fired on them from inside a trailer, and a German Township officer was wounded in a large exchange of gunfire, Kelly said. There were "many, many, many" shots fired by the suspect and police, he said.

Enon Beach resident Angelina Inman said she looked out of her trailer to see the deputy lying on the ground. She watched as another officer tried to reach her body.

"He was itching to get her," Inman said. "He kept radioing in, can he please get her, and he was told no because it wasn't secure. You could see that male sheriff crying — he wanted to get her, he wanted to get her bad."

It appears that it was gunfire from Clark County deputies that killed the suspect, said Kelly, who has been sheriff for 24 years. He said he had hired the slain deputy and had known her since the police academy. He called her "just a good person, an outstanding deputy," and said she was the first officer he's lost.

"This," Kelly said, "is the worst day of my entire law enforcement career."

Enon Beach sits near Interstate 70 and acts as a seasonal campground with some summer-only residents and others who live there year-round. A portion of the highway was closed twice for a total of about an hour because the trailer park is so close to the roadway, Ohio State Highway Patrol Lt. Gary Lewis said.

A girl who lives in the trailer park said she knew the shooting suspect and he had a temper.

"He was a quiet person, but if you made him mad — he wasn't very pleasant," 15-year-old Chelsea Bagley said.

Her mother's boyfriend, John Burkhardt, said he heard the shots fired in the neighborhood. Police then arrived, Burkhardt said, and for several minutes authorities asked the suspect over a loud speaker to come out and surrender.

"They give him 25 chances to walk out of there," Burkhardt said. "They were begging him to come out, but he wouldn't come out."

Shortly after, Burkhardt said, authorities opened fire on the man's trailer.

"All hell broke loose," he said.

By Andrew Welsh-Huggins
The Associated Press

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• home
• Law
• Enforcement
• Exchange
• Gun
• Fire
• in
• trailer
• park
• Enon
• Ohio
• deputy
• killed
• police
• gun
• fight
• shotgun
• Slain
• officer
• was
• mother
• of
• two
• sheriff's
• sheriff
• shooting
• suspect
• Clark
• County
• Gene
• Kelly
• Beach
• mobile
• Suzanne
• Hopper

[fyibutube]

Comments Bashing LE or the victim will be deleted. If you have CONSTRUCTIVE comments then feel free. Yes things could have been done differently, but none of us were there so show some Respect.

[fyibutube]

@jayecleveland Not a fair comparison. Sometimes there is more to life than statistics. Furthermore it doesn't really matter if you were a fisherman or construction worker, if someone blew you away with a shotgun with no warning, you (and your loved ones) would likely not give a Shit about some the statistics.

[MilitaryPoliceNV]

rest in peace. the other deputys did a excellent job by taking action and fataly wounding the suspect. my prayers go out to the Hopper family. god bless. rest in paradise. From las vegas nevada.

[r5t6y12]

Yeah, you can see @ various points in the video that there is a faded spot right underneath the propane tanks on the front of the camper.

That's where the female deputy was laying when the gunfire on this video erupted.

[jayecleveland]

@Sig19 i speak truth

[djoniMoroni]

nobody loves police, aaa

[TargetHHH101]

I remember seeing this on new years day, Im from Clark County, Couldnt believe it.

[Sig19]

@jayecleveland Ur just a fuckin moron buddy.

[WILLOW5521]

Drug dealers, child molestation, selling drugs to children at the bus stop etc. What were the state troopers doing when I reported this redneck criminal activity? The sided with red neck residents who lied and covered for these slobs. The Harding Woods Trailer Park in Elmer N.J. The worst sucking scum of the earth.

[Church11787]

@fyibutube Wow cops no exactly what there getting into and stats DO matter...

[apharot]

@jayecleveland What you fail to mention, is that 1-15 do it for money. These officers don't make much money. They do it because someone has to be the one that protects people from the idiots running amok in this world.