NEWTOWN, Ohio (AP) — The veteran police chief in a bucolic Ohio village, where the last murder was two decades ago and he can just about count the number of drug cases on both hands, finds himself in the spotlight on the front lines against heroin overdoses in one of the nation’s hardest-hit states. Thomas Synan Jr., of Newtown, with …

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The fatal police shooting of a 13-year-old Columbus boy who officers said pulled a BB gun from his waistband that looked like a real weapon will be investigated thoroughly to determine if charges are warranted. In a killing with unavoidable echoes of the Tamir Rice case out of Cleveland, a Columbus officer responding to a report …

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A police officer responding to a reported armed robbery shot and killed a 13-year-old boy when the teen pulled a firearm from his waistband that was later determined to be a BB gun, police said Thursday. The shooting happened around nightfall Wednesday in an alley east of downtown Columbus after a short foot chase. Columbus police …

LIMA, Ohio (AP) — FBI agents have searched a northwest Ohio sheriff’s office but aren’t disclosing what they were looking at or why. FBI Special Agent Vicki Anderson says agents conducted an investigation in Allen County on Wednesday but she can’t yet share details. She says no one was arrested. The Lima News reports Allen County Sheriff Sam Crish wasn’t …

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio has yet to outline how exactly its new medical marijuana law will work even as it is set to take effect Thursday, leaving a host of unanswered questions by doctors, patients, pharmacists, police and many others. Rules for producing, prescribing and distributing cannabis to eligible patients are expected to take up to a year to …

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio man has been sentenced to 13 years in prison for causing a crash that killed two pedestrians when he recklessly drove his pickup truck into a school bus that hit the man and woman. Terrance Trent of Whitehall in suburban Columbus was found guilty last month of two counts of aggravated vehicular homicide in …

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Accidental drug overdoses killed 3,050 people in Ohio last year, an average of eight per day, as deaths blamed on the powerful painkiller fentanyl again rose sharply and pushed the total overdose fatalities to a record high, the state reported Thursday. Over one-third of those deaths — 1,155 — were fentanyl-related, which more than doubled from …

FREMONT, Ohio (AP) — A sheriff who is up for re-election this fall pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges he stole medications from prescription drug disposal drop boxes, deceived doctors into giving him painkillers and misused department funds. Sandusky County Sheriff Kyle Overmyer faces six felony charges in a 43-count indictment released Tuesday night. Overmyer, 42, wore handcuffs and an …

BELLEFONTAINE, Ohio (AP) — A western Ohio man who admitted that he fatally shot a teenager while hosting a drinking party has been sentenced to five years in prison. Twenty-year-old Evan Hoffman, of Bloom Center, pleaded guilty last month to reckless homicide and was sentenced Monday. Investigators have said Hoffman told them he shot the 16-year-old Jackson Center boy in …

WAVERLY, Ohio (AP) — The Ohio attorney general says whoever killed eight members from the same family in Ohio were familiar with the victims, their homes and the surrounding area.