SUGARCREEK TOWNSHIP — Newly-obtained body camera video shows Sugarcreek Township officers show up to a disturbance call that turned out to be a murder scene connected to a double murder-suicide.
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As News Center 7 previously reported, U.S. Air Force First Lieutenant Jaime Gustitus’s neighbors called 911 around 2 a.m. on Oct. 25 to report a disturbance.
The video obtained on Friday shows those neighbors meeting with the officer and sergeant as they arrive with alarming information, but no one seemed sure if Gustitus was home.
The video starts with former Sugarcreek Township Sergeant Doug Evans walking up to the apartment complex. He zips up his jacket on a cold morning, partially blocking the view from his body camera.
As shown on News Center 7 at 5:00, a neighbor tells officers that a man jumped off the balcony at Gustitus’s condo and took off running.
“I’m telling you, he jumped across like Spider-Man and was out,” the neighbor said.
One woman told police on the scene that she woke up to loud banging, got up, and poked her head out to take a look.
“I heard like banging, either a golf club or a bat, you know, banging the window, and I heard glass shatter,” she told police.
Another neighbor said she heard a man yelling “Let me in” during the banging.
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Evans and the officer’s body cameras showed a ladder that they would later come to believe Jacob Prichard put on top of an air conditioning unit, and then managed to make it onto Gustitus’s balcony.
The first woman then told officers that she captured the man on her Ring camera as he ran away, but that he had threatened her first.
“I peeked my head out and I said, ‘Hello,’ and he said, ‘Don’t come out, I have a gun,’” the first woman told police.
The officer and sergeant never seemed overly concerned, apparently believing that this was a break-in attempt and that Gustitus was not home.
The video shows one person pointing out something on Gustitus’s balcony patio and asking the officer and sergeant if they could go up to check it out.
“I’m not too hip on trying to climb up there,” Evans can be heard saying. “There’s something up there, I can tell you.”
Evans told the officer to take the ladder away as potential evidence, but no one went up to look in Gustitus’s sliding patio doors.
As shown on News Center 7 at 6:00, one woman asked police pointed questions after officers had been on the scene for about 20 minutes.
“Why didn’t you ring the doorbell?” she asked.
Police tried to call her, but did not get a response.
“When are you coming back?” the woman asked while officers appeared to be leaving.
As they walked away, the officer and sergeant discussed that they would apparently call a supervisor or detective named Paul.
“I’m going to hang out here until I find out what Paul wants,” Evans said. “I mean, I can’t shimmy up a drainpipe.”
The officer and sergeant eventually left the scene, and her body was not discovered until officers returned several hours later. Evans resigned from his position on Oct. 29 after being put on leave.
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