911 call: Windham woman later killed in deputy-involved shooting pointed gun at neighbor

A man called 911 to say his neighbor was pointing a gun at him in his garage.

What happened next in the fatal officer-involved shooting of Cora Baughman in Windham Township on Sunday remains a mystery.

The police chief in Garrettsville and Portage County Sheriff Bruce Zuchowski have not responded to phone calls seeking more details. Windham Police Chief Rick Garinger said none of his officers responded to the scene.

Zuchowski said in a press release Sunday evening that one of his deputies and a unit from the Garrettsville Police Department responded to the 8000 block of Werger Road for a neighbor dispute.

"While enroute the caller stated that his neighbor had entered into his garage and pointed a gun at him," police said in an incident report released Wednesday by the Portage County Sheriff's Office.

The incident reports the victims as a 51-year-old man and a 54-year-old woman who reside next door to Baughman on Werger Road. A younger man who shares the same last name as the victims was listed as a witness.

The listed criminal offense on the police report is aggravated burglary with intent to inflict harm. There’s no secondary offense of deadly force, which is typically reported when officers fire their weapons at suspects.

The Portage County Sheriff's Office redacted nearly a page of details in the report, citing a state exemption for confidential law enforcement investigatory records.

Identity released:Woman, 66, killed in deputy-involved shooting over weekend in Portage County is identified

Baughman, 66, died of multiple gunshot wounds to the chest, according to the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner. The Portage County Sheriff’s Office called in the Bureau of Criminal Investigation with the Ohio Attorney General’s Office to conduct an outside review of the deadly force incident.

No officers were injured, according to Zuchowski's release posted on Facebook Sunday.

Steve Irwin, a spokesman for the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, said the external investigation is ongoing.

Public records requests have been submitted to local police chiefs and the Portage County Sheriff’s Office seeking information on whether the officer who killed Baughman has been placed on administrative leave pending the investigation. Irwin said he did not know if the officer who used deadly force is still on duty.

“That is a decision for the agencies,” Irwin said.

News on the go:The BeaconJournal.com app is packed with great features. Here are 5 you need to know 

To preserve the integrity of the outside investigation, Irwin would not comment on how many shots were fired or which local law enforcement agencies did the shooting.

“That is not something that we would disclose as part of our ongoing investigation,” Irwin said.

Fatal shooting:Agency anticipates lengthy investigation into Portage County deputy-related fatal shooting

No one answered a reporter's knock Tuesday at Baughman's house or her neighbor’s home. Public property records indicate the neighbors lived next door to each other since at least 2008.

This is the third shooting incident involving sheriff's office personnel in a year. In the previous two cases, Ohio BCI investigations cleared the Portage County Sheriff's Office of wrongdoing.

On May 12, 2021, deputies went to a Ravenna Township man's Route 14 home to arrest him on outstanding warrants and he was shot when he allegedly lunged at deputies with a knife. He was charged and his case is still pending in Portage County Court of Common Pleas.

On July 4, an armed Ravenna Township man was fatally shot after sheriff's personnel responded to a domestic violence call at the man's Bennington Pike home. The investigation determined that the man never fired his gun, but it was loaded and witnesses reported he did point it at the deputies before they fired.

Reach reporter Doug Livingston at dlivingston@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3792. Record-Courier reporter Jeff Saunders contributed to this report.