Nathaniel Todd Boothe

Suicide

Police first got a call at 2:48 a.m. saying someone (later identified as Nathaniel Todd Boothe) hit a car at South 4th and Wyanoke and fled. A Speedway store employee then reported that a man (Boothe) had shoplifted cigarettes and left without paying for gas. Boothe headed north on Ohio 93 without his lights on. At least two police cruisers pursued Boothe onto Hecla Road and then Sugar Creek-Johnstown Road, where his car ran into a culvert. Officer Shawn Rawlins reportedly heard a shot and called for backup. Officers from the Lawrence County Sheriff's Department, Ohio Highway Patrol and Coal Grove police responded and found Booth dead. According to police, no shots were fired by the officers. Boothe had been the chief of Piketon police until an investigation in 2002 revealed he'd taken money from the department's accounts and marijuana from the evidence room.