Columbus man dead after standoff following attempted breach of Cincinnati FBI office identified

CLINTON COUNTY — The Ohio State Highway Patrol has officially identified the Columbus man who was killed by law enforcement Thursday afternoon, ending an hours-long standoff with law enforcement that began after he tried to breach the FBI Field Office in Cincinnati earlier in the day.

Ricky W. Shiffer, 42, was officially identified Friday morning.

An FBI spokesperson confirmed that the FBI Cincinnati Field Office “had an armed subject attempt to breach the Visitor Screening Facility” around 9:15 a.m.

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“Upon the activation of an alarm and a response by armed FBI special agents, the subject fled northbound onto Interstate 71,” the spokesperson said.

Troopers spotted Shiffer’s vehicle, a Ford Crown Victoria, near the northbound Interstate 71 rest area in Warren County just after 9:30 a.m. Shiffer took off from troopers and a pursuit began.

“While behind the vehicle, a suspected gun shot was fired from inside the suspect’s vehicle,” OSHP said in a release.

The pursuit ended on Smith Road in Clinton County, which is near state Route 73 and I-71, and an hours-long standoff between law enforcement and Shiffer ensued.

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The standoff resulted in a lockdown of all buildings within a one mile radius of the intersection of Smith and Center Roads.

Negotiations to get the man to surrender failed, so law enforcement officers approached him to take him into custody, Lt. Nathan Dennis, a spokesman with the OSHP, said. Shiffer allegedly raised his firearm at officers, who fired on him at 3:42 p.m., killing him as he was crouched beside his car.

Lt. Dennis said several parts of the investigation remain under investigation, including how many shots were exchanged between the suspect and law enforcement at the start of the standoff on Smith Road; how many times the suspect was hit by the gunfire that killed him; and where he might have been headed when he sped away from a rest stop on northbound I-71 about 9:37 a.m. and headed toward Wilmington in Clinton County.

OSHP, Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the FBI are all investigating the incident.

“The FBI is now reviewing this agent-involved shooting. The FBI takes all shooting incidents involving our agents or task force members seriously. In accordance with FBI policy, the shooting incident is under investigation by the FBI’s Inspection Division. The review process is thorough and objective, and is conducted as expeditiously as possible under the circumstances,” an FBI spokesperson said Thursday night.

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CBS News reported Friday morning that just hours before he attempted to break into the FBI field office, Shiffer appeared to post his desire to kill federal agents on the social media platform “TRUTH Social.”

In posts that have since been removed by the site’s moderators, Shiffer allegedly wrote, “When they come for you, kill them.”

Shiffer was also allegedly in Washington D.C., on or around Jan. 2, 2021, according to CBS News. He was not arrested following the attack on the U.S. Capitol.

News Center 7 looked into Shiffer’s record and learned that the Ohio State Department of Taxation filed an action against Shiffer in June, according to Franklin County court records.

Shiffer also has two traffic violations from 2013, court records show.

A background check into Shiffer showed he previously had residences in Nebraska, Florida, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania.

We’ll update this story as we learn more.

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