Man claims misunderstanding with unemployment office prompted police to his home

HUBER HEIGHTS — A Huber Heights man said what started as a phone call to the Ohio Department of Job and a Family Services about his unemployment benefits, ended with armed police officers surrounding his home.

“I have spent countless number of hours on the phone trying to get somebody with unemployment,” John Williamson told News Center 7′s Katy Andersen.

Williamson, who has not worked since May due to the COVID-19 pandemic, said he called Ohio Department of Job and Family Services Wednesday morning to ask why he is not receiving unemployment benefits. He said the employee on the other end of the line must have misunderstood him.

“She misconstrued that I was suicidal and I am going to harm my woman,” Williamson said. “She mentioned something and asked if I had any guns in the house? I thought, that was a little weird, like why do you want to ask that?”

Williamson said minutes later his wife looked out the window of their home to see several armed police officers.

“When I look out, I saw the cops with the guns pointed toward the house and it scared me,” Mary Park, Williamson’s wife, said. “I didn’t know what was going to happen.”

Williamson said, “I stepped outside and said, ‘hey what’s going on?’ That was when I was treated like the biggest convict on the planet.”

Williamson claims he was handcuffed and told by police officers they got a 911 call from an ODJFS employee saying Williamson was suicidal and had a gun.

News Center 7 obtained an audio recording of a dispatcher talking to a police officer who was headed to Williamson’s home.

“We’re being advised he is upset because he is unemployed,” the dispatcher said. “There’s going to be a gun involved. He does have a gun. We are trying to determine how many people are in the apartment. He is making threats to kill himself and his family.”

Williamson denied having a gun.  “I never said anything about being suicidal,” he said. “When she started to go down that road, I tried to plead to her, “No one in this house is suicidal. I don’t know what you’re talking about, I am telling you I am going to starve to death.’”

Williamson said while he understand police were doing their job, he is frustrated with how the situation was handled.

“What we went through this morning was absolutely traumatic,” Williamson explained. “It’s traumatic to go through the coronavirus, it’s traumatic to know you’re in a house and running out of money and you know you’re going to starve eventually. Then when you ask for help and this happens? I don’t know. I believe I am using all my faith in any kind of help.”

WHIO reached out to Huber Heights Police for more information, but a spokesperson with the department said they do not release information regarding suicidal calls.

Cox Media Group