Shooting death of Ohio National Guardsman ruled suicide

May 4, 2011 at 2:49p.m.

MANSFIELD, Ohio (AP) — A coroner has determined that the fatal shooting of an Ohio Air National Guardsman was a suicide.

Richland County Coroner Dr. Stewart Ryckman made the ruling today in last week’s death of Tech. Sgt. Eric W. Meister at a Guard base in Mansfield. Ryckman says the 39-year-old Meister died of a single gunshot wound to the head.

Meister’s body was found Thursday morning outside an armory at the Ohio Guard’s 179th Airlift Wing. Investigators from the Ohio State Highway Patrol had indicated it wasn’t immediately clear if the death was an accident or if Meister had taken his own life.