May 2024. BLUES Vol. 40 No. 5

AROUND THE COUNTRY

AROUND THE COUNTRY ORIENT, OH. Lt. Rodney Osborne, of the Ohio Dept. of Corrections, was shot and killed at the Corrections Training Academy in a tragic training accident. ORIENT, OH. – Lt. Rodney Osborne was fatally shot in the chest Tuesday at the firing range at the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction’s prison training facility in Orient, according to 911 calls placed after the incident. One caller, who did not identify himself to a Pickaway County Sheriff’s dispatcher, said Osborne was still conscious after the shooting while bystanders performed first aid, including CPR. A second caller told a dispatcher they were loading Osborne onto a truck to drive him to the facility’s front gates to meet arriving medics. Osborne died from his injuries, but the 911 callers did not indicate how he was shot other than it occurred during training. ODRC director Annette Chambers-Smith said in a news release that the incident “appears to be a tragic accident.” The shooting is now under investigation by the Ohio State Highway Patrol. State patrol Sgt. Tyler Ross said the patrol was notified just before 11:30 a.m. Tuesday about Osborne’s death during an on-duty incident. “The patrol, having jurisdiction on state property, is investigating the incident and that investigation is ongoing at this time,” Ross said in an emailed release on Tuesday. “The patrol does not have any additional information to release at this time.” Osborne was a 13-year veteran of the ODRC and was “beloved amongst his peers,” Chambers-Smith said. He was a member of the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility’s special response team and honor guard and the ODRC’s statewide Special Tactics And Response (STAR) team. Last week, Osborne was named the SOCF’s Employee of the Year. Cousin remembers Rodney Osborne as devoted to family and his work Osborne’s cousin, Pamela Osborne, said he was a family man who leaves behind three children LT. RODNEY OSBORNE and a wife. “If there was ever a perfect man, it was him,” she said in an interview Wednesday. Osborne grew up in Ashland, Kentucky, where he graduated from Paul Blazer High School in 1999. His cousin said he loved outdoor activities such as fishing and shooting guns, but family was his priority. He considered his coworkers at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, where he was called “Ozzy,” a second family and got into law enforcement to help people. DON’T MISS THIS MONTH’S AFTERMATH ON PAGE 134 32 The Blues - May ‘24

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