DAYTON — A Montgomery County grand jury on Friday chose not to indict a county sheriff’s deputy who shot and wounded a woman who hit him with the vehicle she was suspected to have stolen.
“The grand jury returned a no true bill, finding that under the circumstances the deputy acted lawfully,” Prosecutor Mat Heck Jr. said in a prepared statement.
>> RELATED: Columbus woman accused of hitting deputy with stolen vehicle
Deputies in two sheriff’s cruisers stopped a suspected stolen vehicle near North Dixie Drive and Stop Eight Road in Harrison Twp. the night of Feb. 22, according to the evidence the prosecutor’s office presented to the grand jury. One cruiser was in front of the vehicle; the other was behind it.
One of the deputies, 25-year-old Michael Profitt, got out of his cruiser and began to walk toward the vehicle that suspect Brooklynn Frazier had been driving. She put the vehicle in reverse, then sped forward, striking the deputy. The impact caused him to land on the hood and windshield.
>> RELATED: Columbus woman indicted, accused of hitting deputy with vehicle
Deputy Profitt discharged his service weapon at Frazier, striking her in the arm twice, before landing in the street at the intersection of Dixie and Stop Eight.
Profitt did not suffer any broken bones, but did suffer road rash and multiple cuts, including a large cut to his hand, Sheriff Rob Streck said at a news conference after the incident. Profitt was taken to a hospital and released a day later.
Frazier, 24, was convicted in May of felonious assault on a police officer and sentenced to 10 years in prison. She was charged initially with two counts of felonious assault on a police officer and one count of felony failure to comply with the order or signal of a police officer.
Frazier remains in the Ohio Reformatory for Women at Marysville, where she began serving her time in July.