Deters: 'Act of God' saved two cops

Officer Kenneth Grubbs was close enough to shake hands with a man he encountered in a Walnut Hills courtyard on March 12.

Body camera footage released Tuesday by the Hamilton County Prosecutor’s Office showed the shootout between Grubbs, his partner William Kuepper, and a man police have identified as Damion McRae.

Grubbs was shot once in the lower abdomen. Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters said McRae was shot four or five times, twice in the head. Both survived their injuries.

After Grubbs was struck, he fired 17 shots, reloading his firearm once, Deters said.

“The fact that he was able to continue, even after being shot, to defend himself and his partner,” Chief Eliot Isaac said. “I think it demonstrates a tremendous job and a very well-trained police officer.”

Even after other officers arrived, Grubbs was still sitting up with his gun trained on McRae, the footage shows. Only after it’s clear that McRae is under control does Grubbs’ body camera point toward the sky as he lays back.

Police were called to the Gilbert Avenue apartment building after McRae’s girlfriend reported a domestic violence situation. Grubbs attempted to stop McRae in the courtyard because he matched the description given by his girlfriend.

“This is an individual who was willing to shoot anyone he encountered,” Isaac said.

The video appears to show that McRae had a Kel-Tec Sub 2000 carbine, a small 9 mm rifle, concealed behind him as he approached Grubbs.

“It really was an act of God that saved these two cops,” Deters said. “If that gun hadn’t jammed, we could be unfortunately going to a couple of funerals.”

McRae’s firearm jammed after the first shot, police said. Deters reported that McRae was also carrying a loaded .22 caliber revolver and a stun gun.

McRae was indicted on one count of attempted murder, two counts of felonious assault, three weapons counts and one count of assault.

Both Grubbs and Keupper have been cleared of any wrongdoing. Deters said no charges would be filed against them.

Deters said his office will likely return to the grand jury to seek another count of attempted murder involving Kuepper. With the current charges, McRae faces the possibility of more than 20 years in prison.

McRae, who was convicted last year of multiple drug-trafficking charges, should have been in prison at the time of the incident, Deters said.

Deters blamed both the judge who, in October, sentenced McRae to probation and state corrections officials who he said don’t want defendants with low-level felonies in prison.

“If I had a defendant with this kind of record,” Deters said, “and he came up in my courtroom – he’d be going to prison.”

He said there is a push by the state “to clear out our prisons” to deal with overcrowding.

McRae’s criminal record includes numerous drug-related arrests and convictions going back two decades. The 37-year-old’s adult record, Deters said, shows a total of 14 felony arrests and 26 misdemeanors.

In 2007, he was accused of illegally carrying a sawed-off shotgun, but records show he was found not guilty by a judge at a bench trial.

On Oct. 31, McCrae appeared before Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Patrick Foley III to be sentenced for heroin and cocaine trafficking.  Court records show Foley sentenced him to two years of probation.

“This is like a judicial nightmare when something like this occurs,” Deters said.