Columbus man who shot cop in 4-hour standoff with police sentenced
The Columbus man who in 2016 took a stolen scooter to break into a Hilton Avenue home where he shot a police officer and started a four-hour standoff has pleaded guilty.
It was 2:28 in the afternoon Oct. 21 when Daniel Ray Crisp triggered the burglar alarm at the house in the avenue’s 3300 block, where then-Officer Josh McQuien and a colleague found broken glass and went in looking for the intruder.
As McQuien ventured into an upstairs bedroom, Crisp shot him in the shoulder, the officer’s bulletproof vest deflecting the bullet and leaving him bruised.
Crisp fired four more shots as other officers neared the bedroom, prompting police to back off, surround the house and call in a SWAT team as reporters, paramedics and other law enforcement agencies converged on the scene, blocking the busy avenue through the afternoon.
Meanwhile Crisp created a defensive position inside, punching through walls to open portholes he could shoot through, including one in a bathroom where he put two of the homeowner’s shotguns, so he could fire at anyone coming up the stairs.
Police finally used “flash-bang” grenades to distract Crisp and enter the house, where they used a noxious gas to drive him from hiding in a rear room.
Then 34, Crisp was charged with nine felonies, the maximum penalties for which could have totaled 160 years in prison. He faced four counts of aggravated assault, two of burglary, two of using a gun to commit a felony, and one of attempting to commit a felony.
In a deal negotiated by prosecutor Wesley Lambertus and defense attorney Barry Debrow, he pleaded guilty Thursday to all the charges except three of the assault counts and one of using a gun in a felony.
Judge Arthur Smith III sentenced him to 45 years in prison with 25 to serve and the rest on probation. Crisp today is 37 years old.
McQuien, who later resigned from the police force, testified briefly during the sentencing, telling Smith he still has post-traumatic stress disorder from being shot.
Troubled life
Crisp had a troubled past before his violent 2016 confrontation with police.
Court records showed he twice was married and twice divorced by women who complained of his reckless behavior, alleging he was abusive and threatening.
In January 2016, his first wife, whom he divorced in 2010, filed for a protective order, claiming he had come to her residence yelling death threats. She also accused him of keeping their daughter in a lice-infested home and letting an unlicensed grandfather drive her around.
The following February, the second wife he married in 2013 sought a protective order, alleging he told her she needed to keep her mouth shut because he was “close to beating me again.”
She said that Crisp threatened to kill her, too, and that he padlocked the gates to their home so she couldn’t get in, and withheld money she needed to pay bills.
The first wife then filed a follow-up motion, referencing the second wife’s complaint of family violence and alleging that Crisp was homeless, using methamphetamine and making their daughter miss school.
Crisp separated from his second wife that May, and their divorce became final the following Sept. 6, six weeks before he stole a motor scooter from a Lakebottom-area home and rode it over to Hilton Avenue, to break into a house.
During bond hearings after his arrest, defense attorneys told Judge Smith that Crisp was bipolar and taking medication for it, and in need of additional mental health treatment.
Crisp was found competent to stand trial after Smith ordered a psychological evaluation.