The two deputies shot while serving a warrant in Walton last week are both home from the hospital, the Boone County Sheriff’s Office said.
After the first deputy was discharged on Friday, officials shared video of the second deputy being escorted as they left the hospital Monday night.
“The team at UC Medical Center is incredible and we are forever grateful,” the sheriff’s office said. “We have felt the outpouring of support from the community. Thank you all.”
Major Philip Ridgell said Friday the sheriff’s office is thankful the two do not have more serious injuries and said there is no doubt their bulletproof vests helped save lives.
“It could have been horrific … instead of two deputies being discharged, we could be talking about potentially planning the funerals,” Ridgell said.
The deputies were serving a felony warrant regarding overdue child support to 39-year-old Justin Chapman at an apartment on Service Road just after 10 p.m. when Ridgell said they were met with “heavy gunfire.”
Two deputies were hit multiple times. One was airlifted while the other was taken by ambulance to UC Medical Center.
“This is something that they, themselves and their families, this is a worst nightmare type of situation,” Ridgell said during a press conference directly after the shooting.
Video sent to us by a neighbor showed the moments deputies breached the door of the home and entered moments before what sounds like gunshots can be heard.
Ridgell said Chapman remained barricaded inside his apartment as multiple SWAT and law enforcement agencies worked to get him out. He did not respond to the team’s attempts to establish communication with him and SWAT deployed gas canisters into the inside of the home.
When Chapman did not appear to react to the gas, deputies navigated a drone into the home and found him lying unresponsive in a second-floor bedroom. After entering the home, SWAT team members determined he was dead from “an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.”
Ridgell said a criminal investigation is ongoing. However, officials believe deputies did not fire any shots at Chapman during the incident.
Boone County court records show that in the last 16 years, Chapman had a history of cases involving failure to pay child support, resisting arrest and domestic violence.
In 2009, a Walton woman sought a protection order after she said Chapman threw her to the floor while she was holding their 5-month-old baby. She also said he told her “time and time again that if he could get away with killing her, he would.”
Ridgell told reporters this particular warrant had been active “for some time.” Deputies had previously tried to execute a warrant for Chapman “several months ago” and were unsuccessful, he said.
