Mahoning deputies assist in Piketon

Staff report

PIKETON

Eight Mahoning County deputy sheriffs have gone to Piketon to help the Pike County Sheriff’s Office in the aftermath of the April 22 deaths of eight people in four homes there in a shooting massacre.

“They are performing a security function at different locations in Pike County as well as traffic control where needed,” said Maj. William Cappabianca of the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office.

The first group of four Mahoning County deputies left Friday morning and returned Saturday after working eight-hour shifts both days, Cappabianca said.

The second group of four left Sunday morning and will return today, he said.

Cappabianca declined to name the deputies who made the trip.

“Probably, their manpower is a little exhausted,” Cappabianca said of the sheriff’s office in rural Pike County.

“They requested that other sheriff’s offices help out on the noninvestigatory functions in Pike County,” Cappabianca said of the Pike County Sheriff’s Office.

“They’re getting plenty of assistance from BCI,” in the homicide investigation, he said, referring to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation.

The Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office is paying for the service of its deputies in Piketon, but hopes the federal government will reimburse it for overtime incurred, Cappabianca said.