Ohio deputy shoots newspaper photographer after mistaking camera equipment for a weapon

Reporting from SPRINGFIELD, Ohio  â€”  An Ohio sheriff’s office plans to release records and body camera images after a deputy shot a photographer for a small news organization when the officer apparently mistook the journalist’s camera for a weapon.

The Clark County Sheriff’s Office has put Deputy Jake Shaw on administrative leave and said he will attend a “critical incident debriefing.�

The office said it will release records in the case on Wednesday morning. The shooting happened Monday night in New Carlisle, north of Dayton.

Andy Grimm of the New Carlisle News said he got out of his Jeep to take pictures of a traffic stop and started setting up his tripod and camera when he was shot in the side.

He is expected to recover, and is uninterested in seeing the officer punished, the newspaper said Tuesday.

The shooting happened about 10:15 p.m..

“I turned around toward the cars and then ‘pop, pop,’� Grimm said in the newspaper’s story on the incident.

An update on the news organization’s Facebook page said Grimm is “is very sore but otherwise is doing fine� after surgery and doesn’t want Shaw to lose his job.

“This is a small town. Everybody knows everybody. Everybody looks out for one another,� Dale Grimm, Grimm’s father and the publisher of the weekly paper along with two others, said in a phone interview Tuesday morning.

Dale Grimm said it’s not clear what the deputy was thinking.

The case has been turned over to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation. At the request of the Clark County prosecutor’s office, prosecutors from the attorney general’s office will handle the case.

It’s not uncommon for local prosecutors to make such a request, especially in communities where prosecutors and sheriff’s office authorities work closely together.

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