Booth, 35, was killed in an officer-involved shooting about 10:44 p.m. near Ohio 63 and New Garver Road.
“He’s out of his mind and he just got out of the mental ward not long ago,” the woman told dispatchers. “He shouldn’t be driving. He is in a manic episode. He is handing out money to random people. He is a danger to himself and others and I need police with him now.”
The wife, who was following her husband, said Booth was in a GMC Sierra truck on Furlong Lane, then she relayed his driving route. She said Booth was not in his right mind.
“He is honking the horn everywhere. He is throwing money out of his vehicle. He thinks he is God. He thinks he is here to save the world,” she said.
The wife tells dispatchers she believed Booth had a gun with him and he had a CCW permit.
“I don’t think he will use it though,” she said.
The wife then saw and officer and said, “please stop the car, he does have a gun.” She then choked up and said, “he’s not stopping.”
An officer relayed on the radio that “he told me to meet him at his house, so I am following him.”
“He’s going home, he’s going to our house,” the woman said. “He is going to put on an act and act like he is normal and he’s not.”
A Butler County Sheriff’s Office CAD (computer-aided dispatch) report from Booth’s address on Bluegrass Lane indicates deputies were called to assist police.
The report says there was a man inside with mental health issues and there were weapons in the house.
BCSO deputies were at the residence, or nearby, for two hours and 25 minutes. During that time, Booth was seen with a gun on his hip.
There was no answer on Booth’s cellphone, and when officers looked through a garage window he was screaming and was very agitated, according to a CAD entry at 2:55 p.m. He also appeared to put a note in the front window.
The Monroe Police CAD report mirrors the same information, but officers remained at or near the residence. Booth was seen setting up a tripod in the window, flashing lights and walking down the street waving.
Negotiators made contact with Booth about 5:34 p.m. with a cellphone placed on the porch. At 7:41 p.m. a female pulled in and began talking to Booth, according to the report.
A 10:44 p.m. Booth left in a vehicle. The CAD entry says, “firearm in bag.”
At 10:48 there is an entry of “subjects fighting” and “shots fired” at 10:50 p.m., according to the CAD report.
Booth was transported from the scene to Atrium Medical Center, where he died. Warren County Coroner Russell Uptegrove said Booth was shot multiple times.
Police made a traffic stop at 10:44 p.m. when Booth, who was a passenger, got out of the vehicle and did not follow officers’ commands, police said. He pulled a handgun from his waistband, and officers shot him.
The “officers involved have been placed on administrative leave, per department policy,” police said.
Eliza Miller said she witnessed the incident. She had just picked up a Door Dash order at McDonald’s and was at a nearby stoplight when she saw four Monroe police cruisers, lights flashing, pull over a blue and white pickup truck on Lebanon Road.
“I really did have a front row seat,” Miller said. She is still shaken by what she saw.
She said the truck was pulled over and the driver “immediately got out of the vehicle and was getting on the ground, and I witnessed the passenger get out and start walking away with his hands up. And he had his arms up the entire time, so I mean, if they did find a gun on him, they got lucky, but from my vantage point his arms were up when he got killed.”
Miller said she heard one shot followed by many others. She said it sounded like all officers fired their weapons. She said she heard at least 12 shots.
“One shot and they all shot,” she said. “It was really horrible and I was in such shock.”
She said, “from our vantage point his arms were up the whole time.”
Monroe police did not answer a request for how many shot at Booth and the names of the officers on administrative leave. The officers have body cameras that likely will be a part of the BCI investigation.
The shooting investigation from the Ohio Bureau of Investigation is ongoing. BCI investigators were called by Monroe police to investigate the incident.
”The length of BCI’s investigation depends on the scope and scale of each incident — the average officer-involved shooting takes 400 hours to investigate. While the criminal investigation is ongoing, I cannot provide additional information about the incident,” BCI spokesman Steve Irwin said.
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