EDITOR’S NOTE: In light of the news that the local VA is poised to close, which will impact mental health services for veterans — and taking into consideration that the victim’s family says mental health services at the VA were at the center of this tragedy — the Guardian felt it was important to release the 9-1-1 tapes to bring awareness to the true totality of mental health and veterans in our local community.
ROSS COUNTY, Ohio — The 9-1-1 tapes detailing the moments leading up to and after the killing of a local veteran have been released.
The Ross County Sheriff’s office released the calls on Thursday in the death of 22-year-old J.T. Knotts. Knotts, a retired marine, was shot after a homeowner claims the young man was a burglar.
In three of the four calls, frantic women dialed for help because they were scared that someone was at their homes. They told the dispatcher that a shirtless man was “banging” on their doors. One caller said her young daughter and friends were were scared, and that the situation was caught on security camera video. Another said that the stranger yelled that he needed help and that he was “overdosing.” In each call, the man — later identified as Knotts — left before deputies arrived.
In the fourth call, however, a man called in saying he had shot someone he believed to be a burglar.
WARNING: The following may be considered disturbing. Viewer discretion is advised.
“I just had somebody break into my house and I shot them,” the male caller said. “He broke down my front door — the outside door — and he ran back outside; I shot him five times.”
The man said that Knotts went back outside and laid down on the porch where he died.
What happened.
Early morning, on April 3 deputies were sent to the area of Anderson Station Road in Chillicothe after numerous homeowners called 9-1-1 to say a person was banging on their doors screaming for help. One dispatcher told responding deputies that they believed the man going house-to-house was possibly overdosing. Eventually, the man knocked on the door to a home in the 200 block of Anderson Station Road. The events that unfolded after that were not publicly released by law enforcement, but the end result was the homeowner shooting and killing Knotts.
The armed homeowner told law enforcement that they thought Knotts was trying to break in; and of course, law enforcement had been told by others in the area that they thought the man was overdosing when he knocked on their doors allegedly screaming for help.
What circulated in the public afterwards.
There are several groups on social media that are dedicated to people listening to the local EMS radio traffic and reporting their movements online. After the shooting, many took to social media to post what they had heard dispatchers relay: that a man was going door-to-door, possibly overdosing, before one homeowner shot him as he allegedly tried to make entry into their home. Before it was over, rumors were circulating online that a drug addict was shot dead during an attempted home invasion. The issue with that is, family members of young J.T. said he was not a drug addict and instead, something more serious was happening.
What the family says went wrong.
Family members reached out to the Guardian Sunday afternoon as the news broke across the state that J.T. had been killed. They were quick to defend his name and said that Knotts was not a drug addict and had never used illegal drugs. Instead, the family said the 22-year-old was a retired marine who had been enlisted for four years before recently returning home to Chillicothe.
While the family was distraught and chose not to speak publicly on the record, they told the Guardian that J.T. had been deployed to another country for two years and had saw combat that “really messed him up.” It was only last year that U.S. President Joe Biden announced an end to the War in Afghanistan, which took the lives of thousands of service members and countless civilians. That’s when Knotts ended his contract in the Marines and returned home.
J.T. was seeing doctors at the local Veteran Affairshospital in Chillicothe for serious psychiatric disorders brought on from his time in the service, family members said. Recently, he had been prescribed medications that were allegedly causing him to have delusions, family members told the Guardian. In fact, they said they had plans on Sunday morning to take him back to the VA to hopefully have him evaluated and have his medications readjusted.
When the family woke up Sunday morning to get dressed and ready for the trip to the hospital, they found their front door was opened and that Knotts was missing. It was not long before they saw the police presence in the neighborhood and learned what had happened.
“For someone to slander a veteran is a shame …. He was 22, he was disoriented, and he took a shower. He left my father’s house in shorts only, and was to go to the VA to be seen today,” a family member told the Guardian. “They had him on multiple medications and they knew it would collide. He is not a burglar, he was just a kid. He was an honored veteran and an excellent person. The VA let him down along with everyone who is slandering his name.”
The aftermath.
Knotts was was pronounced dead at the scene. The homeowner was questioned, but no charges have been filed. The County Coroner has sent Knott’s body to Dayton for an autopsy. The family told the Guardian that they are confident that a toxicology report will exonerate their loved one and prove he was not on illegal drugs.
For now, the local Sheriff’s office, along with the state’s BCI, County Coroner, and other law enforcement continue their investigations, who said they will not be releasing any more information.
If you are a veteran in crisis, there is help! Call the national hotline at 1-800-273-8255 and press 1.
