FATAL DRUG RAID SHOOTING TO BE INVESTIGATED

Father Denies That Dead Man Held Pistol

WEST ALEXANDRIA -- A police officer fatally shot a Preble County man Friday
night during a drug raid at a farmhouse in West Alexandria, prompting
outrage from his family and an investigation by the Montgomery County
Sheriff's Office.

Clayton J. Helriggle, 23, was killed by a single shotgun blast fired by a
Lewisburg police officer, according to the Preble County Sheriff's Office.

"The officer encountered Mr. Helriggle holding a pistol and the officer
fired one round from a shotgun," said Preble Sheriff's Capt. Mike Simpson.

But Helriggle's father, Michael Helriggle, said his son was carrying a
glass of water, not a gun. He also said police officers involved in the
raid ran around "high-fiving each other" as he and his wife watched from a
nearby field.

"They were so busy celebrating and everything. It was like a carnival to
them," Helriggle said. "They all got to use their new guns and stuff."

Simpson said, "That's just not true."

The Montgomery Sheriff's Office has begun an investigation.

Helriggle was coming down the back stairs of a home at 1282 Ohio 503 S.
about 6:45 p.m. when he was shot by the police officer, part of a
multi-agency force serving a search warrant at the home, Simpson said.

The officer, who has not been identified, was already inside the back door
of the house, Simpson said. The officers entered the home after announcing
themselves, but without knocking, at 6:45 p.m. Friday, to serve a warrant
seeking drugs suspected in trafficking involving another resident of the
house. The raid capped a "short-term in-

vestigation," Simpson said.

Preble and Montgomery County authorities returned to the home Saturday and
seized a small amount of marijuana, an unspecified about of pills and drug
paraphernalia, according to a Preble County sheriff's press release.

"No other shots were fired at anybody else," Simpson said, although he said
shots were fired at pit bulls inside the house. It was unclear whether the
dogs were injured.

The arm of another man living in the house was injured during the raid.
Officials were unsure if he was wounded by shrapnel from the shotgun blast
or flying glass. Helriggle's father said the man had been hit by pellets
from the shotgun.

Clayton Helriggle is the first person killed by law enforcement in Preble
County in five years, Simpson said.

Michael Helriggle said his son's death could have been avoided had police
knocked at the door, rather than bursting through in SWAT attire. "There
was no reason for them to come in there that way," he said.

Michael Helriggle said Clayton worked in a family garage-door business.

He also enjoyed playing guitar and rock climbing in Kentucky's Red River
Gorge, his father said.

"I lost my son over this, " he said. "It's turned my family upside down. He
absolutely wasn't a drug dealer."

Funeral arrangements will be handled by Barnes Funeral Home in Eaton.