Gunman was awaiting sentencing on drug conviction
The Associated Press
FINDLAY, Ohio -- A man who fired a gun inside a motor vehicle office and led police on a high-speed chase on Interstate 75 was heavily armed and wearing body armor, authorities said yesterday.
Donti Henry, 29, shot and wounded two state troopers Saturday before police shot and killed him, authorities said.
Henry was most recently living in the Detroit area and was facing sentencing there on a drug conviction, said Hancock County sheriff’s detective Tim Graydon.
It was not clear what led to the shooting and chase, authorities said. Henry was wearing a bulletproof vest and had a supply of ammunition in his vehicle, authorities said.
“This man had a plan,” county prosecutor Robert Fry said. “We may never know.”
Henry walked into a state Bureau of Motor Vehicles office in Bowling Green Saturday morning and presented fake documents to obtain an Ohio driver’s license, authorities said.
A police officer arrived and Henry reached for an object in his waistband, authorities said. The two struggled and the officer fell. The suspect fired a shot on his way out of the office, authorities said. No one was injured in the office.
The suspect fled in a minivan with a Michigan plate and headed south on I-75.
A woman inside the van got out when it slowed down during the chase. Barbara Jean Clark, 27, of Southfield, Mich., was charged with conspiracy to commit robbery.
The chase, which reached speeds of up to 100 mph, ended when Henry stopped at a gas station near Bluffton, about 40 miles south of Bowling Green after his vehicle struck tire-deflating devices placed on the highway by police.
Henry got out of the minivan and tried to take a vehicle belonging to a couple from Ontario, Canada, who had stopped to refuel on their way to Florida, authorities said. The suspect then opened fire on police.
Trooper Albert Leitenberger, 47, was shot in the arm and had surgery yesterday. The other trooper, Chuck Grizzard, 37, was treated for a gunshot wound and released.