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An Ohio man helping to clean out his late grandmother's apartment was shot dead by police officers who thought he was a burglar

Matthew Loh   

An Ohio man helping to clean out his late grandmother's apartment was shot dead by police officers who thought he was a burglar
  • Joe Frasure, 28, was shot dead by the Ohio police while cleaning his late grandmother's home.
  • The police officers at the scene were responding to reports of a burglary, per NBC News.

A 28-year-old man in Ohio died on Tuesday after being shot by police officers who thought he was a burglar.

But Joe Frasure was just cleaning out his late grandmother's home in Wyoming, a city in Ohio's Hamilton County, according to his family and multiple media reports.

Frasure went to the apartment on Monday evening to help his sister, Shonda Coleman, clean the residence, NBC affiliate WLWT reported.

He was outside the building with his father, Joe Frasure Sr., when officers arrived around midnight, Frasure Sr. told WLWT.

Wyoming police said three officers were sent to the apartment because they received reports about a possible burglary happening there, per NBC News.

The officers saw the two men at the back of the residence and ordered them to stop. But Frasure didn't obey their commands and entered a minivan in an attempt to flee, said Wyoming Police Chief Brooke Brady in a statement, NBC reported.

"The minivan reversed at a high rate of speed before hitting a tree, at which point the vehicle accelerated rapidly at our officers," Brady said, per NBC News.

Brady, who reviewed bodycam footage of the incident, said the officers fired four shots at the minivan, striking Frasure, according to the outlet.

Frasure was then taken to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, the Hamilton County prosecutor's office told CNN. Frasure died at the hospital on Tuesday night, per a coroner's report seen by local news outlet WCPO.

But Frasure's family claims he was shot in the back of the head while he drove forward, disputing the police's account of the confrontation.

"Today my brother in law was shot in the head three times by Wyoming Police, Ohio," Erika Frasure wrote on Facebook on Tuesday. She is married to Joe Frasure Jr., Frasure's brother, who has the same name as the deceased.

"He was shot in the back side of his head but driving in drive not reverse so if you're shot in the back side and driving away how were the officers in danger of being ran over," she wrote.

She added that her brother-in-law was "scared he was going to get in trouble" because he was on parole and wasn't supposed to be in Ohio. She wrote that Frasure also did not want to "go back to jail."

Coleman, Frasure's sister, said she didn't hear police issue any commands to Frasure, per WLWT.

"I didn't hear none of that. I didn't hear no commands. All I heard is pop, pop, pop, pop. Like, it was, like, ten rounds," Coleman told the outlet. "I want to see the body cam. I want all the cops that was here, every one of them that was here, I want their information."

"This is a tragedy for all involved," Brady said, per NBC News. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family at this time."

Brady, Wyoming Assistant Police Chief Jennifer Lattire, the Hamilton County Prosecutor's Office, and Frasure's family did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment.



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