Illegally playing on ice at an Ohio state park ends tragically for teenager and parks officer sent to help

 

A tragic end to an illegal act resulted in the direct drowning of a 16-year-old girl and the indirect death of an Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Parks and Watercraft officer.

On the early evening of February 23rd the girl and her 13-year-old brother ventured out onto what’s being described as “thin ice” near the boat docks of Rocky Fork State Park in Highland County.

Contained within the 3,464-acre state park is 2,080-acre Rocky Fork Lake, a popular bass, crappie, and muskie fishing lake in southwest Ohio near Hillsboro and which was added to the state park system in 1950.

The two youths fell through the ice into water about 10 feet deep with the girl struggling to save her younger brother.

However, the girl slipped beneath the ice into the frigid water, estimated to be only about 36 degrees.

Ohio Natural Resources Department information chief Sarah Wickham said the only winter-time activity permitted at Rocky Fork Lake State Park is sledding.

Responding to the 9-1-1 call that was received by dispatchers at around 6:30 p.m. was 36-year-old Ohio Department of Natural Resources Officer Jason Lagore, a 15-year veteran of the Natural Resources agency that specializes in state park and watercraft matters.

Lagore’s was often photographed his K-9 partner, his latest one being “Sarge;” not surprising give that the officer created the agency’s K-9 academy and led its Division of Parks and Watercraft K-9 training program.

During the search, Officer Lagore suffered a medical emergency and was taken to Highland District Hospital in Hillsboro where he was pronounced dead, Wickham said.

The exact nature of Lagore death has not been announced.

Wickham said the Natural Resources Department was assisted by the Paint Creek Joint EMS & Fire, Lynchburg Area Joint Fire & Ambulance, Highland County Emergency Management, Highland County Sheriff’s Office, Highland County Coroner’s Office, Task Force 1 dive team from Hamilton County, the dive team from Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, Eastern Joint Fire District, and Fayetteville Fire Department.

“The initial call was made by a person in the area who heard the cries for help. That person called for help then assisted the young man out of the water,” Wickham said. “Our officers were alerted by county radio traffic that two victims had fallen through the ice.”

In the course of the evening a dive team recovered the body of the 16-year-old girl and transported the body to the hospital where her death was officially pronounced.

The death of officer Lagore and the teenager has sent shock waves throughout the Natural Resources Department and has even reached the offices of Ohio Governor Mike DeWine and Ohio Attorney General David Yost.

In a prepared statement, Natural Resources Direcror Mary Mertz said that “our hearts are with the family and loved ones of Officer Jason Lagore, who died in the line of duty last night.”

"Our law enforcement officers and their families carry a unique and challenging burden of responsibilities, and we are deeply grateful for their service,” Mertz said.

In a February 24^th Tweet, DeWine said that “Fran and I offer our deepest condolences to officer Lagore’s family and colleagues.. In honor of his life and service, I’ve ordered flags lowered on public buildings and grounds in Highland County, at the statehouse, Riffe Center and Rhodes Tower in Columbus.”

Yost was even more direct, saying in his statement: "Broken ice and the frigid black water beneath can only be terrifying - Dante's deepest circle of Hell is ice, and not flames.”

“Officer Lagore acted with extreme courage to go to the rescue of these two kids; his example demonstrates the very highest valor. My deepest sympathies are with his family, the family of the girl he could not rescue and his colleagues,” Yost said.

“I pray for comfort for all those who mourn.”

In her concluding remarks, Wickham noted that “Visitors are warned to stay off of the ice at Ohio state parks. No ice should be considered safe ice.”

- By Jeffrey L. Frischkorn

JFrischk@Ameritech.net

JFrischk4@gmail.com

Ohio's deer management leader critiques the state's 2020-2021 deer-hunting season

 

Deer hunters in Ohio split the goalposts in the state’s estimate of the number of animals that would fall to arrows, shotgun slugs and bullets during the several-month long deer-hunting season.

In all, 197,735 animals were killed – combined – for Ohio’s archery, firearms, youth, muzzle-loading deer-hunting seasons. That figure is the highest since the 218,910 deer that were killed during the 2012-2013 all-deer-seasons.

Still, 13 of Ohio’s 88 counties record declines in the number of deer taken in each of them when compared to their three-year average.

“We figured there would be between a five and 10 percent increase in the deer harvest from the previous year,” said Mike Tonkovich, the Ohio Division of Wildlife’s deer management administrator. “It was close to seven percent.”

The top 10 counties for deer harvested during the 2020-2021 deer season include: Coshocton (6,791), Tuscarawas (6,158), Ashtabula (5,662), Licking (5,549), Knox (5,247), Muskingum (5,172), Holmes (4,833), Guernsey (4,809), Carroll (4,123), and Trumbull (4,015).

Other statistics provided by the Wildlife Division shows that 48 percent of the deer were taken with archery tackle. Broken down further, 33 percent of all deer checked in were taken via crosssbows and 15 percent longbows.

The deer kill by firearms was the remaining 52 percent. This percentage is further divided by 22 percent with shotguns, a near identical 21 percent with straight walled cartridge rifles, eight percent with muzzleloaders, and less than one percent with handguns.
 
Across all of the various 2020-2021 deer-hunting seasons, hunters took 80,003 bucks, accounting for 40 percent of the total kill. Does represented 48 percent of the kill with 94,771 taken, while 19,629 button bucks were taken, for 10 percent. The rest were not posted.

Interestingly, says the Wildlife division, bucks with shed antlers and bucks with antlers less than 3 inches long accounted for 3,332 deer, or only two percent of the total deer kill.

Still, the several gun seasons were really the highlight of the overall 2020-2021 season, Tonkovich said.

In focusing on those several deer-hunting segments, and when one “considers the seven-day gun seasons from 2010 forward, the average annual change through the 2019 season has been minus-five percent,” Tonkovich said.

“Yes, we have averaged a five-percent decrease per year over the last 10 seasons, and since 2010, there have only been three increases, dnd those averaged 8.5 percent,” Tonkovich said. “But this year’s gun season was up 9.3 percent!”

What’s more, Tonkovich said, the increases continued into the December two-day, so-called “bonus gun season.”

“Bonus season hunters took nearly 20 percent more deer this year compared to the average of the past three seasons,” Tonkovich said.

In answering his own question as to “why,” Tonkovich said it was “largely due to the power of snow.”

The cold weather forced hunters to move, which in turn led to deer movement and ultimately improved hunter success, Tonkovich said.

“Let’s face it, hunting in the snow is fun, even for us old guys,” Tonkovich said.

Here is the county-by-county list of all white-tailed deer checked by hunters during the all-2020-2021 deer hunting seasons. The first number following the county’s name shows the kill numbers for 2020-2021, and the three-year average of deer taken from 2017 to 2019 is in parentheses.

A three-year average provides a better overall comparison to this year’s deer kill numbers, eliminating year-to-year variation because of weather, misaligned season dates, crop harvest, and other unavoidable factors..

All numbers are raw data and subject to change.

Adams: 2,947 (2,989); Allen: 1,075 (992); Ashland: 3,698 (3,195); Ashtabula: 5,662 (4,970); Athens: 3,185 (3,511); Auglaize: 1,006 (877); Belmont: 2,932 (2,827); Brown: 2,683 (2,369); Butler: 1,617 (1,375); Carroll: 4,123 (3,748); Champaign: 1,397 (1,192); Clark: 785 (730); Clermont: 2,717 (2,393); Clinton: 649 (761); Columbiana: 3,453 (3,075); Coshocton: 6,791 (6,438); Crawford: 1,363 (1,200); Cuyahoga: 997 (955); Darke: 883 (742); Defiance: 2,228 (1,650); Delaware: 1,641 (1,500); Erie: 996 (1,065); Fairfield: 2,179 (1,873); Fayette: 328 (327); Franklin: 901 (752); Fulton: 924 (749); Gallia: 2,438 (2,426); Geauga: 2,229 (1,863); Greene: 960 (808); Guernsey: 4,809 (4,522); Hamilton: 1,498 (1,575); Hancock: 1,654 (1,252); Hardin: 1,507 (1,291); Harrison: 3,647 (3,489); Henry: 910 (730); Highland: 2,910 (2,503); Hocking: 2,634 (3,093); Holmes: 4,833 (4,177); Huron: 2,578 (2,256); Jackson: 2,595 (2,881); Jefferson: 2,229 (1,886); Knox: 5,247 (4,554); Lake: 1,046 (844); Lawrence: 1,695 (1,713); Licking: 5,549 (4,820); Logan: 2,222 (2,054); Lorain: 2,513 (2,154); Lucas: 831 (749); Madison: 622 (515); Mahoning: 2,029 (1,938); Marion: 1,009 (869); Medina: 2,715 (2,078); Meigs: 3,187 (3,032); Mercer: 880 (721); Miami: 845 (800); Monroe: 2,494 (2,456); Montgomery: 882 (724); Morgan: 3,130 (3,040); Morrow: 1,860 (1,539); Muskingum: 5,172 (4,950); Noble: 3,189 (2,951); Ottawa: 617 (491); Paulding: 1,336 (1,034); Perry: 2,630 (2,592); Pickaway: 625 (783); Pike: 1,763 (1,902); Portage: 2,501 (2,360); Preble: 1,076 (993); Putnam: 936 (775); Richland: 3,937 (3,409); Ross: 3,071 (2,925); Sandusky: 1,154 (871); Scioto: 2,110 (2,170); Seneca: 2,073 (1,906); Shelby: 1,090 (993); Stark: 3,238 (2,836); Summit: 1,732 (1,479); Trumbull: 4,015 (3,586); Tuscarawas: 6,158 (5,575); Union: 1,117 (940); Van Wert: 623 (515); Vinton: 2,110 (2,540); Warren: 1,243 (1,175); Washington: 3,233 (3,239); Wayne: 2,626 (2,239); Williams: 1,952 (1,604); Wood: 1,142 (963); Wyandot: 1,919 (1,523). 2020-2021 total: 197,735. Three-year average: (180,921).

- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn

JFrischk@Ameritech.net

JFrischk4@gmail.com

Ohio's Attorney General develops online resource to help facilitate recovery of stolen firearms

 

Ohio’s Attorney General office has built an electronic tool that will enable would-be used firearms buyers to determine whether the potential purchase is possibly a stolen rifle, shotgun or handgun.

Called the “Ohio Stolen Gun Portal”, it is a “searchable website designed to increase public safety by helping to identify and recover stolen firearms,” said Ohio Attorney General David Yost in a prepared statement.

The strictly voluntary system is available to individuals as well as firearms collectors, gun shops and pawn shops. It is available at www.ohioattorneygeneral.gov/stolengun.

“With our new portal, when buying a used firearm, private citizens and firearms dealers can instantly check to see whether a gun was previously reported as stolen,” Yost said in his comments.

“This is a tool for gun buyers and law enforcement alike that will lead to the recovery of stolen firearms and serve as a deterrent for criminals seeking to make a quick buck.”

Importantly, also says Yost’s chief of communications, Steve Irwin, there is no electronic “finger-printing” of the portal inquirer. Nor is there any maintaining of a data base of who possesses what firearm; legitimately or possibly stolen.

Simply, Irwin said that when a user inputs a serial number, the portal searches that number against the serial numbers of firearms that have been reported as stolen.

Since a serial number may exist on different firearms made my different manufacturers, that data is provided.

“If there is a match, the portal provides the user the serial number, make and model of the firearm, the name of the law enforcement agency that entered the gun as stolen and the agency’s contact information,” Irwin says. “No notification is made by the portal to the law enforcement agency that there has been a match.”

In all, Irwin also said the Stolen Gun Portal is to-date linked to 99,484 records of stolen firearms entered into the LEADS (Law Enforcement Automated Data System) by Ohio’s various law enforcement agencies.

“The data file is updated each day,” Irwin likewise told “Ohio Outdoor News,” noting as well to avoid calling between 11 p.m. and midnight when any new information is being inputted.

Praising the project is Eric Delbert, executive officer of Columbus-based LEPD Firearms.

The Ohio Attorney General’s office said it was Delbert who brought the issue to the agency’s attention.

“Our Attorney General couldn’t believe Ohio hadn’t been doing to all along,” Delbert said.

“We sell perhaps one thousand used firearms every year; they come in the door and then out so it’s possible some of them may have been stolen. Now we have a way to check them.”

A bonus, says Delbert, is that such a system puts the “bad guys on notice” that should they steal a firearm and then attempt to sell it at a gun show, gun shop or to an individual the thief runs the risk of being discovered by someone who undertakes the voluntary serial number check.

“It mirrors what other states like Florida are all ready doing,” Delbert said.

The Ohio Attorney General’s office is also making another on-line tool available to assist a gun owner in recovering a stolen firearm. This form is called the Personal Firearms Inventory. It is available at: https://www.ohioattorneygeneral.gov/Files/Publications-Files/Publications-for-Law-Enforcement/Concealed-Carry-Publications/Personal-Firearms-Inventory-Booklet.

“It’s a handy tool for firearm owners to record their serial numbers, model, make and other information so that if something happens, they can quickly and accurately report the information to law enforcement,” Irwin says.

- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn

JFrischk@Ameritech.net

JFrischk4@gmail.com