Allison Manning & Theodore Decker
The Columbus Dispatch
COLUMBUS, Ohio — When probation officers came to Charles Roberts’ door, looking for his grandson this morning, he offered to go get him.
But the officers wanted to get Tyshawn Hancock themselves. They went past Roberts, he said, guns in hand, to where Hancock was in an upstairs bedroom.
“I tried to stop them saying, ‘Let me bring him to you,’” Roberts said, trying to avoid a confrontation in front of his wife and two young great-grandchildren. “That wasn’t good enough.”
Met by the officers in a small bedroom of 2850 Petzinger Rd., Hancock dove for a gun, Columbus police said. He and probation Officer Jonathan D. Farnsworth wrestled for control of the weapon.
In the struggle, Farnsworth was shot, and the officer returned fire.
Both Farnsworth and Hancock were taken to OhioHealth Grant Medical Center, where Hancock, 37, died shortly after 10 a.m. in what state and local officials say is the first shooting of a probation officer they could recall.
Farnsworth, 45, who has worked for the county since 2004, was in serious condition tonight after undergoing surgery. The probation officers were there to arrest Hancock, who they said had violated his probation on a conviction for attempted aggravated assault.
Probation Officer Kenneth Rovenko called Columbus police to report the 9:35 a.m. shooting. Breathing heavily, he said that Farnsworth had been shot in the side and Hancock also had been shot. Farnsworth can be heard talking in the background, and Rovenko tells the 911 call-taker that Hancock appears to be breathing.
Columbus police spokesman Sgt. Rich Weiner said there was no indication that the probation officers were expecting a violent arrest.
“Nothing led them to believe at the very beginning that anything was going to happen,” Weiner said.
Court records show Hancock was indicted once in Franklin County Common Pleas Court, for a May 6, 2012 assault in which he bit another man’s nose during a dispute at a bar.
Hancock’s lawyer initially argued that Hancock could not aid in his own defense because of mental-health issues, but Hancock eventually was deemed competent and pleaded guilty to the lesser offense of attempted aggravated assault.
He was sentenced on April 23 of this year, when Judge Charles A. Schneider placed him on a year of probation and ordered him to pay $3,445.48 to cover the victim’s medical bills. The sentence was recommended by defense attorney Michael H. Siewert and Assistant Prosecutor Joseph Murnane.
“I had concerns about his competency; I had concerns about his mental health,” Siewert said yesterday. He said he could not elaborate because of attorney-client privilege.
Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien said Hancock paid the restitution in full and that the victim agreed to the disposition.
A law-enforcement source said Hancock held some anti-government views, and O’Brien said there were some “abnormal verbal exchanges in court” during his assault case.
“He had some ideas of persecution and distrust of government officials that might have prompted him this morning to do what he did,” O’Brien said yesterday.
Municipal Court records show Hancock was arrested on June 27 by Columbus police on the Near East Side after a traffic stop. He was charged with driving under suspension, having an open container in a motor vehicle, and possession of drug paraphernalia.
He was jailed over that weekend, pleaded guilty to the suspension count, and released for time served. It is not clear whether the probation department knew that he had been arrested.
Roberts said his grandson wasn’t showing up for meetings with his probation officer, and an officer had called about it a few weeks ago. He wasn’t sure what happened after that, and didn’t know why Hancock wasn’t arrested for the probation violation when he was jailed in June.
Gayle Dittmer, chief probation officer, said the office has 70 probation officers who supervise probationers. Carrying a gun is optional for them. Farnsworth is among about 25 who are trained and licensed to carry a firearm.
Craig Berry, president of the Ohio Chief Probation Officers Association, said the shooting underscores the risk faced by Ohio’s more than 1,500 probation officers, especially when they are conducting home visits.
“The difference between us and standard police officers is we usually know the clientele,” Berry said.
He could not recall another shooting of a probation officer in Ohio.
Roberts doesn’t know what led his grandson to snap. He wishes the officers had been less aggressive, saying maybe the shooting could have been prevented.
“You go bum-rushing in like you’re coming after a murderer and you have a confrontation,” Roberts said. “You never know what someone’s going to do when they’re cornered.”