The man hit by a ricocheting bullet shot by a Lima Police officers at a pit bull speaks out about the accident from his hospital bed.
Ronnie Keller walks the same route every day. He thought Tuesday would be no different, but he was caught in the wrong place and the wrong time and ended up with a bullet in his hand.
"It hurt like, it hurt like, it hurt like, I hate to say the word hell," Keller said.
Keller was walking down the 200 block of West Kibby St. Tuesday morning when he was hit by a bullet that ricocheted off a building.
"I didn't see no guns or nothing, I just felt it. I didn't even see the bullet come," he said.
Keller couldn't see it from where he was standing, but about 200 feet down the road in an alley a dog warden was being attacked by two pit bulls. Lima Police Patrolman Frank Vaccaro shot and killed one, but one of the bullets ricocheted, hitting Keller.
Since he didn't know what the situation was and didn't see officers Keller ran a few blocks to safety and called 911.
"They took me in for surgery and did the surgery on it and took the bullet out and cleaned the wound and here I am," he explained.
Ptl. Vaccaro is now on paid administrative leave and the police department is reviewing its gun policy.
"We're going to review our policies on when officers discharge their firearms at dogs and how we can make that better. It certainly is an unfortunate event that we don't want to see happen," Major Chip Protsman, said.
Keller holds no hard feelings toward the police department. He says he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
"I realize they were doing their job, I just happened to be there when it hit," Keller said.
Keller should be released from the hospital Thursday morning.
As for those pit bulls that caused the shooting, one was killed during the shooting but the other, which was shot, ran off. Officers think they found that one Tuesday night.
