MASON, Ohio (Scripps News Cincinnati) — Video from a doorbell camera shows the dramatic moments a man inside a home shoots a deputy at point-blank range, as she ducks and returns fire.
The video shows Deputy Sara Vaught with the Warren County Sheriff’s Office on Feb. 15 knocking on the door of a home to conduct a welfare check. A man opens the door, shows a handgun and fires. The bullet narrowly missed Vaught before she returned five rounds.
Warning: While the video does not depict any individual being struck by gunfire, some viewers might find the content of the video disturbing.
“I remember one of the more senior officers saying police work was really 95% tedious boredom, punctuated by 5% of sheer terror,” former University of Cincinnati Police Chief Gene Ferrara explained. “As I understand what happened here, that’s where it went.”
The sheriff’s office later identified that individual as 56-year-old Lance Runion and charged him with attempted murder and felonious assault.
“Hardly what you’d expect on a welfare check,” Ferrara said. “The thing about police work is that you go from zero to 60 in about a half second.”
He said that while the situation was tense, Vaught’s actions followed procedure to the letter.
“You don’t have time to think about anything,” Ferrara said. “So you have to react, and the reaction is based on whatever you’ve programmed into yourself through training. That’s really what I’m sure got her through that.”
Neither Vaught nor the other deputies present at the scene were injured, according to the Warren County Sheriff’s Office. Runion was hospitalized due to multiple gunshot wounds.
This story was first published by Pat LaFleur at WCPO in Cincinnati, Ohio.
