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Newark Police Investigate Shooting By Officer: Man Shot After Brandishing Rifle in Street

Posted on: Tuesday, 21 March 2006, 12:00 CST

By Tom Sheehan, The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio

Mar. 21--NEWARK, Ohio -- A Licking County grand jury might be asked to review a shooting by a Newark police officer early Sunday. The officer shot a man who pointed a rifle at several officers investigating a report of a man making threats.

Joseph E. Bennington, 35, was in fair condition yesterday at Ohio State University Medical Center in Columbus with a gunshot wound in his left shoulder. Officer Ronald Ray Lewis fired more than once at Bennington after officers found him outside a mobile home at 469 Lexington Ave., on the city's east side, police said.

Bennington is accused of pointing the rifle at the officers, said Police Capt. Al Zellner. The man allegedly had threatened some people outside the mobile home, although Zellner declined to say what motivated the threats.

Lewis, 36, has been assigned to administrative duty pending an investigation into the shooting, Zellner said. Police initially refused to release the officer's name. The Dispatch yesterday filed a public-records request with Police Chief H. Darrel Pennington to obtain the name.

Seeking a review of the shooting by a grand jury is a normal procedure, Zellner said. Police do not think that Lewis, an eight-year veteran, did anything wrong.

Assistant County Prosecutor Ken Oswalt said that if police bring the case to prosecutors, they will review it and then decide whether it needs to be taken to the grand jury.

The last shooting by an officer in Newark apparently took place in November 1986, according to Dispatch news archives.

Then, a sergeant wounded an 86-year-old man in his left arm and chest after the man took a shotgun and blew out the rear window of the officer's cruiser as he and others investigated a report of domestic violence at the man's home. The officer returned fire with a shotgun. A grand jury later cleared the officer.

Bennington likely will be charged with felony aggravated menacing once investigators have completed their questioning of the three other officers and civilians who witnessed the shooting, Zellner said.

Bennington has been arrested a few times on misdemeanor charges in the past 10 to 15 years, the captain said. Municipal Court records show that he has been arrested 10 times, mostly for traffic offenses, since 1990.

This is the third time in a month that area law-enforcement officers have shot a gun-wielding man.

Three Hocking County deputy sheriffs fatally shot 27-yearold Larry Morrison on March 11 at a rural home southwest of Logan. The deputies fired after the mentally disturbed man leveled a shotgun at them, authorities said.

State Highway Patrol Trooper James Cress fatally shot Errol "Ty" Baker II on Feb. 19 after struggling over a gun following a traffic stop in Fayette County.

tsheehan@dispatch.com

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio

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Source: The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio

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