A sheriff’s deputy investigating a report of gunfire at a trailer park was shot dead Saturday, and a second officer was shot and wounded. The shooting suspect was also killed.
Deputy Suzanne Hopper was shot and killed at close-range Saturday by Michael Ferryman as she tried to photograph a footprint in the Enon Beach mobile-home park in western Ohio.
German Township police officer Jeremy Blum, was hospitalized in fair condition after a shootout that ended with the gunman dead. An investigation is underway to determine if the gunman shot himself or if he was killed by police bullets. It was unclear if Blum was shot in the initial gunshot or a fierce exchange that occurred later.
“This is the worst day of my entire law enforcement career.”
— Clark County Sheriff Gene Kelly (sheriff for 24 years)
Sgt. Dustin White had accompanied Hopper to the Enon Beach trailer park, which is just southwest of Springfield, Ohio, and was interviewing a family whose trailer had been shot at when he heard Hopper scream.
Negotiations failed to get the gunman to surrender. Eventually the police stormed the suspect’s trailer with smoke grenades and gunfire. The suspect identified as Michael Ferryman was found dead after the shootout.
Deputy Suzanne Hopper once went six straight years without calling in sick and often put on charity events for the Special Olympics and other causes, Clark County Sheriff Gene Kelly praised.
“Her personnel file is filled with accolades and commendations and always service before self,” he added.
State and local investigators are piecing together events that led to the fatal shooting of an Ohio deputy, the death of a suspect and wounding of another police officer in a shootout that followed in Enon Beach.