By Police1 Staff
ELYRIA, Ohio — An investigation determined a bullet that struck a Lorain County Deputy Monday night came from an officer’s gun.
Police said Friday that Deputy Steve Fuller, who was armed with an AR-15 rifle, fired the shot that struck Deputy Charles Crausaz, the Plain Dealer reported. An investigation determined the shot — an armor-piercing bullet that penetrated Crausaz’s vest and fragmented — did not come from the suspect.
At the time of the shooting deputies were outside the home of Travis Stidham, 42, whose concerned mother called police after he began firing a .40-caliber semiautomatic pistol at pets. After an approximately 40 minute standoff, Stidham bolted, discharging his weapon as he fled.
His path away from officers also helped determine that it was not his bullet that struck Crausaz, police said.
“Stidham was running away, northeast of Crausaz, but the bullet that hit Crausaz came from the west,” Police Chief Duane Whitely said. “It was not possible for Stidham’s bullet to have hit Crausaz.”
Officers in a helicopter used infrared vision to search the area nearby, and from the sky, saw Stidham appear to kill himself.
Crausaz was released from the hospital earlier this week.