Around the beginning of May of this year, over 15 home invasions and burglaries started taking place in the Country-View subdivision located on the south east side of Columbus. In the earlier incidents the suspects would sneak into people’s homes while they were sleeping and try to steal items without being detected. As the suspects became bolder they began confronting home owners. In one incident the suspects beat an elderly man over the head with a pistol. In another incident they put a gun to an elderly woman’s head and told her they would blow her brains all over her floor.
Detective William Best, in May, brought 20 Precinct 2nd shift Officers Zachary Scott and Lee Hurst up to the Criminal Intelligence Unit to help assist with identifying and documenting gang members on 20 precinct that may be involved in the above violent crimes. Officers Scott and Hurst spent several hours a day in the area in a plain car gathering intelligence and conducting surveillance in various neighborhoods.
On June 29th at around 11:00am, Officers Scott and Hurst, while working surveillance, observed two subjects in the area of a previous home invasion. Both subjects appeared to be setting up to do a home invasion on a residence. Both officers continued to watch the actions of the subjects and at the same time worked towards coordinating a response from marked cruisers into the area. As the subjects were approached to be detained, a foot pursuit ensued that lasted over several minutes. After the subjects were apprehended it was discovered that they both had been armed with guns, ski masks and gloves. One even had several rolls of duct tape in his possession. After several hours of interviews led by Robbery Detective Steve Billups more information was developed. Due to Officers Scott and Lee assisting in piecing together different locations that they had observed the two suspects, several search warrants were issued and searches conducted on a storage unit. The search revealed thousands of dollars in stolen jewelry and property taken from numerous past crimes. As the investigation went well into several weeks more suspects were identified and more stolen property recovered. Numerous subjects are awaiting trial regarding the above arrests.
Because of their efforts and expertise on “knowing the streets they patrol” we are pleased to be naming CPD Officers Zachary Scott and Lee Hurst the Central Ohio Crime Stoppers Officers of the Month for October 2012.