Psych evaluation set for man charged with shooting officer before police standoff

The man charged with shooting an officer before holing up in a Hilton Avenue home for a four-hour standoff with Columbus police is going to have a psychological evaluation.

But Daniel Ray Crisp, an indigent defendant facing multiple felony charges, likely will remain in jail while he’s examined, because Judge Art Smith III refused Monday to lower the suspect’s nearly half a million dollar bond.

Crisp, 34, stole a scooter from a home near Lakebottom Park before driving to a house in the 3300 block of Hilton Avenue and breaking in, triggering a burglar alarm at 2:28 p.m. Oct. 21, police said.

Joshua McQuien was one of two officers who were first on the scene. Finding broken glass, they called for backup before McQuien and two others went in to look for the intruder.

McQuien was shot in the left shoulder when he entered an upstairs bedroom, but his bulletproof vest deflected the round, leaving him bruised.

Four more shots were fired as other officers converged on the bedroom. Police then sealed off the house and called in a SWAT team.

During the ensuing standoff, Crisp broke through Sheetrock walls to create gun portholes through which he could fire at police, including a hole in a bathroom wall by which he placed two of the homeowner’s shotguns so he could fire at anyone coming up the stairwell, investigators said.

Eventually authorities ended the standoff by setting off four “flash bangs” to divert Crisp’s attention to one area while officers came from another direction, they said. They finally used a noxious gas to drive him from a rear room.

Though Crisp told police a second man named “Bobby” was with him, surveillance video showed no one else, investigators said. In court Monday, prosecutor Wesley Lambertus said officers sealed off the area so quickly that they don’t believe a second suspect could have escaped.

Crisp’s attorney Jennifer Curry also mentioned the possibility of a second suspect, saying Crisp didn’t match the description of the intruder who shot McQuien.

She told the judge Crisp needs a psychological evaluation and treatment for mental illness because he’s bipolar and taking medication for it. She provided documentation of Crisp’s condition before Lambertus, who had opposed the evaluation, relented and agreed to it.

Among the effects of Crisp’s ailment and the medication he takes is an altered perception of time, Curry said after the hearing. Crisp thought he was holed up inside the Hilton Avenue home for only an hour, she said.

While asking Smith to lower Crisp’s bonds, Curry objected to leaving his bond for aggravated assault on a police officer at $400,000. Columbus courts have set bonds as low as $250,000 for murder charges, she said.

The bond on an aggravated assault should not be increased just because the victim is a police officer, she argued.

Lambertus countered that the case nearly became a homicide when Crisp shot McQuien and then lay in wait for other officers to approach, planning to ambush them.

The prosecutor noted also that Crisp faces up to 45 years in prison, which would be ample motivation to flee town, where he released from jail.

Curry said Crisp would not leave Columbus because he lives with his mother and has children here. She noted also that because Crisp is indigent and has a court-appointed attorney, he likely would not get out of jail even were his bond lowered to $100,000.

Smith declined to drop the bonds, telling Curry she may ask again if the case stalls. Psychological evaluations can delay cases coming to trial for up to a year.

Interviewed after the hearing, Curry said she still felt it was unfair to other residents for courts to treat an assault on a law enforcement officer differently.

“My position is any citizen of this community is important,” she said. “Their lives matter, and a bond amount should not be higher – it shouldn’t be punitive – for a law enforcement officer’s assault as opposed to any other citizen of the community.”

Besides assaulting a police officer, Crisp is charged with two counts of burglary and one count each of damaging property, theft, using a firearm to commit a crime and felony obstructing police.

This story was originally published February 27, 2017 at 2:57 PM with the headline "Psych evaluation set for man charged with shooting officer before police standoff."