Since April 9, the family of Lt. Rodney Osborne has been unclear about how he died during firearms training at the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction training grounds in Pickaway County.
Hearse carrying Rodney Osborne drives under fire engine.
The hearse carrying correctional officer Rodney Osborne drives under fire trucks decorated with a flag. He was shot in a prison training facility in Ohio.
A firearms instructor at an Ohio prison ignored a “basic” safety rule during a training exercise in April, costing Lt. Rodney Osborne his life, according to new records obtained by Osborne’s family.
David Pearson, the course’s lead instructor, stepped in front of Osborne and gave him instructions on the drill, which was supposed to be a dry run — without live ammunition. Pearson drew his weapon, pointed it at Osborne and fired, the Ohio Highway Patrol report said.
While the students unloaded their weapons and double-checked each other’s firearms, Pearson did not.
One witness said Osborne fell to the ground and said, “You shot me!” while another witness said Osborne said, “Oh, damn!”
All students, including Osborne, wore tactical gear, including bulletproof vests.
Before the tragic shooting, Pearson taught students about the safe handling of firearms, including one of the “cardinal rules”: Never point a gun at something you don’t intend to destroy, according to the patrol investigation.
Since April 9, Osborne’s family has been in the dark about how the 43-year-old husband and father was killed during firearms training at the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction training facility in Pickaway County.
All they knew was that Pearson, 44, had been charged with involuntary manslaughter in July in connection with the shooting. If convicted, he faces up to 180 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.
Pearson, of West Chester Township in Butler County, is a highly trained police officer who has worked as a shooting instructor in Ohio prisons for at least a decade.
After months of The Dispatch and Osborne’s family requesting the incident report from the Ohio State Highway Patrol, Osborne family attorney Mark Kitrick obtained the report and provided it to The Dispatch.
Bobbie Osborne, Rodney Osborne’s wife, told The Dispatch that the report still does not answer her biggest question: why Pearson did what he did.
“The report did not tell us why he did not discharge his weapon. No one knows why he did that,” Osborne said. “It is incomprehensible how someone who was trained (as an instructor) could make so many mistakes.”
Bobbie Osborne had previously told The Dispatch that her “heart aches every single second of every day because of her husband.”
After the shooting, Pearson appeared to be in shock and crying, witnesses said.
Witnesses described the shooting and the chaotic scene that followed. Students began performing CPR on Osborne, called 911, loaded Osborne into a pickup truck and took him to the nearest hospital.
You can read the patrol’s summary report here:
Laura A. Bischoff is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which covers the Columbus Dispatch, the Cincinnati Enquirer, the Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio..
