By Holly Zachariah
The Columbus Dispatch
MOUNT STERLING, Ohio — A village police officer shocked a 9-year-old boy with a Taser this week, prompting a shutdown of the entire force.
Long-embattled Police Chief Mike McCoy has been suspended, and officers who were being used on a part-time basis are no longer working, Council President Lowell Anderson said.
McCoy didn’t tell village officials after the Tuesday incident, and that prompted the suspension, Anderson said.
Village Administrator Joe Johnson, in violation of state open-records laws, refused to release the report on what the village is calling “an incident involving use of force.” Mayor Charlie Neff said in a statement only that the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation has been asked to investigate.
Madison County Prosecutor Steve Pronai, however, said police were called to an apartment on S. Market Street in the Madison County village because Michelle Perry said her son, Jared, wouldn’t go to school. From there, Pronai said he doesn’t know much about it except that the situation escalated and Officer Scott O’Neil used a Taser on the boy.
Anderson said village officials didn’t find out about the incident until late Wednesday night or early Thursday.
McCoy’s cellphone number has been disconnected or changed, and he could not be reached for comment.
A message left with a woman who answered the phone at O’Neil’s home was not returned.
Perry could not be reached for comment.
Neighbors of the apartment where the incident took place said there have been issues with the 9-year-old, who is large for his age. Two neighbors said Jared’s father, and not his mother, lives at the S. Market Street address, but he has been hospitalized because he is gravely ill and disabled.
None of the neighbors would give their names because they said they didn’t want to get involved. All, however, said the father has done the best he can in an untenable situation.
None knew details of the Tasering incident first-hand.
With the disbanding of the police force, Sheriff Jim Sabin said he has been called to temporarily take over patrol of the village. Sabin said Neff has changed the locks at Village Hall and the sheriff has taken the police department’s weapons and computers to secure them, not because they are part of any investigation.
The council will meet on Monday night to decide its next steps concerning McCoy and the rest of the department, Anderson said.
The police department has been under fire for some time. Council disbanded it in August, saying the force had been mismanaged and there was not enough money to make payroll.
But council members kept McCoy on as chief. Then, private donations allowed some officers to come back part-time in September.
Copyright 2012 The Columbus Dispatch