WILMINGTON — Public servants took center stage during Thursday’s Wilmington City Council Meeting.
Mayor John Stanforth gave special recognition to Wilmington Police Department Sgt. Ron Fithen and officers Matt Hamilton and Whitney Johnson for preventing an incident from escalating into violence.
“On April 17, these officers acted in heroic fashion stopping a potential workplace violence incident,” said Stanforth during his mayor’s report. “They were able to use their training and stop what could have escalated to a lethal force encounter. This, in turn, saved lives at a local business — which is also across the street from a daycare. Their actions are within the highest accord in standards keeping with this department’s city vision of safety and service.”
The incident took place at Abbott Image Solutions on Park Street April 17. According to police records, officers were responding to a potential theft resulting in the arrest of Shaun McGee, 37. Officers had found a handgun on the suspect and ammunition was found throughout the business.
McGee was indicted on May 1 in the U.S. District Court of Southern Ohio in Cincinnati on one count of alleged possession of a firearm by a prohibited person, and he pled not guilty.
McGee had already been sentenced to 37 months in prison in New York for knowingly making a firearm and “possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking.”
Also during council:
• Councilmember Jonathan McKay praised “the professionalism and enthusiasm” of Wilmington police, city officials, cemetery workers, and the VFW and American Legion veterans for working together after an incident in which American flags were removed from the graves of veterans at Sugar Grove Cemetery and placed in a dumpster. Stanforth said he was disappointed to see people accusing city employees of dumping the flags before they could find out what happened.
• Shidaker informed council that he received an attendees list for the May 13 meeting he has with the Army Corps of Engineers over the Caesar Creek billing issues. Shidaker said attendees would include the director and assistant director of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, the U.S. Army of Corps of Engineers Louisville District commander Col. Antoinette Gant, and Division Commander Maj. Gen. Mark Toy.
• Stanforth swore in Ron Birt as a lieutenant of the Wilmington Fire Department and made two proclamations — The first one for Police Week May 12-18, and the second for National Economic Development Week May 6-11.