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Police Officer Shot to Death in Small Ohio Town

Thomas Cottrell
OFFICER DOWN MEMORIAL PAGE

  The Knox County Sheriff’s Department arrested a man with a long criminal history in the killing of a police officer in a small north central Ohio village. Ohio Public Radio’s Jo Ingles reports.

 

Danville Police Officer Thomas Cottrell’s body was found late Sunday night, with his service weapon and cruiser missing. His body was found about 20 minutes after the ex-girlfriend of Herschel Ray Jones of Danville called dispatchers to report that Jones was armed and said he wanted to kill a police officer.

Following a short foot chase, officers found Jones and arrested him.

Jones has had multiple convictions on burglary, theft, stolen property and drug-related charges and has served prison time.

In a written statement, the president of the Ohio Fraternal Order of Police, Jay McDonald, said Cottrell’s assassination is the latest reminder of how dangerous police work is and "how the police are targeted for violence."

Jo Ingles is a professional journalist who covers politics and Ohio government for the Ohio Public Radio and Television for the Ohio Public Radio and Television Statehouse News Bureau. She reports on issues of importance to Ohioans including education, legislation, politics, and life and death issues such as capital punishment. Jo started her career in Louisville, Kentucky in the mid 80’s when she helped produce a televised presidential debate for ABC News, worked for a creative services company and served as a general assignment report for a commercial radio station. In 1989, she returned back to her native Ohio to work at the WOSU Stations in Columbus where she began a long resume in public radio.