No charges to be filed against law enforcement in deadly shooting of escaped inmate barricaded with hostage

MASON, Ohio (WXIX) - No charges will be filed against law enforcement members in connection with the deadly shooting of an escaped inmate following several hours of hostage negotiations, Warren County Prosecutor David Fornshell announced Tuesday.

On July 12 at the Baymont Inn in Mason, Thomas Cromwell, 27, died instantly as a result of a single gunshot to his head inside the hotel on the northwest corner of Interstate 71 and Kings Mills Road, according to Warren County Coroner Dr. Russell Uptegrove.

“He had somebody in the room with him,” the coroner said. “It was a hostage situation with a woman barricaded in that room. It went on for a while and then they made the decision to go in and rescue her.”

Fornshell said Cromwell met a woman in the parking lot minutes before going up to her room.

Police found out where Cromwell was and when they approached the room. Fornshell said law enforcement could hear him threatening her.

That’s when the SWAT team got called in.

After the Warren County Tactical team arrived, those threats became more serious, the prosecutor said.

Cromwell made comments that law enforcement would have to kill him if they wanted to save the hostage, Fornshell explained.

The 27-year-old even said he was going to “go out in a glorious death,” the Warren County prosecutor added.

After nearly 12 hours of Cromwell barricading himself inside the hotel room with the hostage, officers busted down the door to find the woman being held at knifepoint.

An officer fired the fatal shot, killing Cromwell instantly, officials said.

>> Amid deadly SWAT standoff, hotel worker says she had to keep cleaning rooms <<

A spokesman for the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation told FOX19 NOW previously that Mason police requested BCI agents investigate the officer-involved shooting at the hotel.

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