Cincinnati police: armed homicide suspect killed by officers after confrontation

2/24/2014

CINCINNATI — An armed homicide suspect was fatally shot after a confrontation with officers on Monday, Cincinnati police said.

Police said they received a report of a domestic disturbance at about 5 a.m. Monday, and that while enroute officers learned there had been a possible homicide and an armed suspect was inside a house. They said Gregory Sanders, 37, confronted officers with a firearm that had a bayonet attached, and that he was shot and killed by them. It was later found that Sanders’ weapon was not loaded, police said.

At a news conference Monday, police said they found the body of Sanders’ mother, Deborah Sanders, inside the house in the Walnut Hills neighborhood after her son was shot. Police spokeswoman Sgt. Julian Johnson confirmed in a telephone interview Monday night that the woman was Sanders’ mother and that she had been stabbed, but Johnson could not immediately confirm the spelling of the woman’s name.

“There was a confrontation between himself and the officers,” Assistant Police Chief James Whalen told reporters at the scene Monday. “The officers discharged their firearms, striking the individual, and he is deceased.”

Four officers responded to the call and three of them fired a total of 20 shots, killing Sanders, Whalen told reporters at the news conference.

Whalen said police don’t yet know how many shots hit Sanders, but he said Sanders had “some hits to his torso, and at least one hit to his head,” The Cincinnati Enquirer reported. Sanders has “no significant history” of mental illness, but friends said “he has appeared stressed,” Whalen said.

Johnson confirmed Monday night that Gregory Sanders lived at the home with his mother and was her caretaker.

“She was evidently suffering from terminal brain cancer,” Johnson said of the mother.

Johnson said the officers involved in the shooting had been placed on seven-day leave, according to standard police policy. She said the investigations by police and the Hamilton County coroner’s office were continuing, but that police officials have indicated initially that no policies appeared to have been violated.