Kate Snyder
The Blade, Toledo, Ohio
TOLEDO, Ohio — Toledo police released video that shows officers struggling with a homicide suspect before he was fatally shot in December inside the Toledo Police Safety Building.
In the video, a uniformed officer opens the door to a holding cell before Damon Barstad pushes the officer out of the doorway and several feet into the open area outside the cell. As the officer struggles with Mr. Barstad, a second uniformed officer runs to help, and they push Mr. Barstad back to the doorway of the cell, where Mr. Barstad reaches for the first officer’s belt.
They push him back into the cell, and three other non-uniformed individuals also run inside the cell to assist the officers.
The officers push Mr. Barstad backward over a bench and against the wall, where he continued to struggle against all five individuals. The video shows Mr. Barstad waving an officer’s Taser around in his hand, and one of the officers, Officer Carl Schwirzinski, draws his gun, pressing the muzzle against Mr. Barstad’s shoulder. Officer Schwirzinski is pushed away, then points his gun again at Mr. Barstad and shoots him once in the chest.
Officer Schwirzinski, 42, faces no charges in connection to the Dec. 20 shooting, said Jeff Lingo, special units chief of the criminal division at the Lucas County Prosecutor’s Office.
Lt. Kellie Lenhardt, a spokesman with the Toledo Police Department, said the internal investigation into the shooting is ongoing, and Officer Schwirzinski is back on duty.
Officer Schwirzinski, a field operations day-shift officer hired in November, 2010, was assigned to guard Mr. Barstad at the time of the shooting. Mr. Barstad, who was a suspect in a Michigan homicide, had been placed in a holding cell at the downtown safety building.
Police said officers opened the door to Mr. Barstad’s holding cell to allow him to use the bathroom. He was not handcuffed, police said.
Mr. Barstad, 23, was accused of fatally stabbing his grandmother, Kathleen Rennae Morrissette, 68, and putting her body in a recycling bin at her home in Warren, Mich., according to Warren police.
Toledo police became involved in the case when they were called at 3:30 a.m. Dec. 20 to assist Warren police, who had detained Mr. Barstad at the Days Inn, 1800 Miami St., after tracking him to Toledo.
He was taken to investigative services at the downtown safety building for Warren investigators.
Police said Warren officers used cell phone location data and tracked the GPS of his vehicle to trace him to the motel. Mr. Barstad had asked for an attorney, and police were not questioning him but were waiting for a warrant to book him into Lucas County’s jail at the time of the shooting.
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©2019 The Blade (Toledo, Ohio)