ONTARIO — A police officer and another woman were shot during a hostage situation in Ontario. Ontario Police were called to the 1000 block of Landings Court just before 9 p.m. Sunday for a violation of a no-contact order. The caller told police the person inside the home was armed.
According to police, when officers arrived on the scene, 32-year-old Jareth Vance was holding a 43-year-old woman from Galion hostage at gunpoint. When officers tried to rescue her, Vance started shooting at them, striking Office Dylan Bailey in the leg. The hostage managed to escape Vance, but police said that he shot her as well.
Authorities said the no-contact order Vance had involved the woman who was shot.
While this was all playing out, police say Vance would not leave the home and continued to hold a 16-year-old hostage there.
Hostage negotiators and local and state police worked to get the teen and the suspect out. He again eventually surrendered, and that teenager was not hurt.
The injured officer, a six-year veteran of the department, is in stable condition, police said. The woman is also in stable condition.
Authorities said they were "kind of" caught off-guard responding to the disturbance because they didn't know what they were initially dealing with regarding a domestic situation.
"It was a very fluid, just a very stressful situation where our officers really had to get in and slice the situation they had up and try to figure out who the suspect was, try to get the kids back," Ontario Police Chief Tommy Hill said.
The chief said the responding officers did an amazing job and are being hailed as heroes, as their bravery is why there were no fatalities.
According to police, Vance has a previous criminal charge out of Crawford County for domestic violence.
Vance has been charged with attempted aggravated murder, authorities said, for shooting the officer. Additional charges may be forthcoming.
Vance is being held in the Richland County Jail in lieu of a $1 million bond.
BCI will be handling the investigation.
