Prosecutor: Escaped inmate shot, killed by officers during SWAT, hostage situation at hotel
By Jatara McGee
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MASON, Ohio (WLWT) — An escaped inmate has died after being shot by officers during a SWAT situation at a hotel in Mason.
Twenty-seven-year-old Thomas Cromwell was incarcerated at the River City Correctional Facility on charges of assault and child endangering.
Cromwell and another inmate, Shawn Black, escaped the facility over the weekend and law enforcement filed arrest warrants against them.
On Monday, around 3:30 p.m. Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office detectives and Mason Police Department officers saw who they believed was Cromwell enter the Baymont by Wyndham hotel with a woman.
Police and SWAT immediately were called and surrounded the hotel and began to get everybody out.
Warren County Prosecutor David Fornshell said in an update Tuesday that Cromwell met the woman in the parking lot and the two went inside the hotel shortly after.
Law enforcement officers attempted to make contact with Cromwell in the hotel room when they heard Cromwell make life-threatening statements against the woman.
That prompted law enforcement to call in the Warren County Tactical Response Unit who responded to the hotel for an apparent hostage, standoff situation.
The tactical team continue to make contact with Cromwell in the overnight hours Tuesday, when Fornshell said continued to make statements that made them feel like the woman’s life was in danger.
That’s when the tactical unit made the decision to force entry into the hotel room.
The tactical team confronted Cromwell in the hotel room and shot him once, killing him, Fornshell said.
Fornshell said an investigation revealed Cromwell was holding the woman at knifepoint at the time the tactical team entered the hotel room. The knife was discovered next to Cromwell’s body.
The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigations is conducting an investigation into the tactical team’s use of lethal force.
The officers are not being identified at this point in the investigation, Fornshell said.
The woman in the hotel room is not being charged and will not be identified.
Once the investigation is completed, they will turn their findings over to the prosecutor’s office.
The Warren County Coroner confirmed that Cromwell’s body will be transferred to the Hamilton County Coroner’s Office for an autopsy.
Cromwell is one of the inmates who escaped from a broken window at the River City Correctional Center over the weekend.
Police are still looking for the other River City Correctional Center escapee, Shawn Black, 29.
The sheriff’s office said the River City Correctional Center is not under their jurisdiction and is governed by a corrections board supervised by the court.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 513-352-3040.
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