Ohio surveys schools about what safety measures they have

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Thousands of Ohio schools have responded to a voluntary survey about school safety measures that will be used to help craft recommendations for state policymakers to consider next year.

Ohio Homeland Security spokesman Dustyn Fox says more than 6,500 school building and district administrators were notified about the survey, and about 4,000 responded by Wednesday’s deadline.

They were asked whether their buildings have school resource officers and features such as visitor screening, reinforced exterior windows, panic alarms and card-swipe systems that limit entry. The survey also asked which security features administrators consider to be essential.

Their specific answers won’t be shared publicly for security reasons, but a summary of the findings and recommendations is slated to be provided to the Legislature and the next governor’s administration early next year.

Police: Property line dispute erupts in deadly shooting

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio man who authorities say shot and killed a 75-year-old man during a dispute over a property line has been charged with aggravated murder and murder.

Forty-nine-year-old Christopher Krauzer was indicted Wednesday in the Sept. 5 fatal shooting of Gordon Capshaw, who owned a rental property next door to Krauzer in Toledo.

Toledo police say the shooting occurred during an argument over the property line while Krauzer installed a privacy fence. Police say the two men had previously argued about the fence and other matters.

Police say Krauzer was holding a rifle when officers arrived but eventually surrendered.

Court records don’t list an attorney for Krauzer, who is being held on a $1 million bond.

Ex-detective sentenced after pleading to tampering charge

FREMONT, Ohio (AP) — A former Ohio sheriff’s detective accused of mishandling a homicide investigation has received two years in prison for tampering with evidence.

A visiting judge in Sandusky County told Sean O’Connell on Thursday she was skeptical of O’Connell’s apology to the family of Heather Bogle, whose body was found in the trunk of a car in 2015. The former Sandusky County detective said in court he was sorry if he took the wrong approach during the investigation.

O’Connell pleaded guilty in late July. Facing discipline, he resigned in September 2016.

Judge Patricia Cosgrove said O’Connell failed to follow important leads and relied on information he knew wasn’t true.

A co-worker of Bogle’s was charged with aggravated murder in 2017 after different investigators took over case. He faces trial next month.

Ohio killer of 2 pleads not guilty to 2 additional deaths

MANSFIELD, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio man sentenced to die for the kidnapping and killing of two women has pleaded not guilty to charges of slaying two additional women.

Death row inmate Shawn Grate was convicted in June of killing two women in 2016 whose bodies were found underneath piles of clothes in what was thought to be a vacant Ashland home.

The 42-year-old Grate was squatting in the abandoned house at the time of the killings.

Grate is also suspected of killing Candice Cunningham in June 2016 and Rebekah Leicy, whose body was found in Ashland County woods in 2015.

The Mansfield News Journal reports that defense attorney Jeff Uhrich on Thursday entered a not guilty plea to multiple charges including aggravated murder and kidnapping on behalf of Grate.

Coroner: Death of Ohio woman who went missing a homicide

ASHTABULA, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio county coroner has ruled the death of a woman who went missing for several weeks a homicide.

The Ashtabula Star Beacon reports the Ashtabula County Coroner’s Office on Thursday said 23-year-old Rand Hilal al Dulaimi died from neck compression and a blunt-force head injury.

Al Dulaimi’s body was found in a wooded area in Saybrook Township on July 24, two weeks after police say she went missing under suspicious circumstances. The wooded area is near the last place she’d been seen, her estranged husband’s home.

The husband, 28-year-old Jeffrey Stanley, was arrested days after her disappearance on a probation violation and subsequently indicted on federal child pornography charges. A message was left Thursday with Stanley’s public defender.

Ashtabula is roughly 60 miles (97 kilometers) east of Cleveland.