A man is charged with murder after he walked up to a police officer and claimed he killed an “old friend” by accident. You can see Brian E. Mason, 58, speak to cops in the partially redacted body camera footage posted above.
Going by the charge, authorities in Miami County, Ohio, aren’t treating the death of Michelle L. Elliott, 57, as a mistake.
In body camera footage dated March 27 shortly after 6:30 p.m., Mason walked up to the point-of-view officer of the Miamisburg Police Department.
“I’m here to turn myself in,” he said, holding a water bottle and appearing calm. “I had an accident last night. I was showing an old friend of mine how to use this gun that she was needing, that she asked for, and it went off and shot her in the chest. And I’ve been running around scared all day.”
Asked if Elliott needed medical assistance, he said she was dead.
“She collapsed instantly, and I got scared,” he said. “I got frightened and ran out.
“I wouldn’t be here voluntarily, but I’ve been so scared since it happened,” Mason said.
He told the police the gun in question was in his truck.
At least one officer didn’t take him at face value about this death being an accident.
“He said the gun he used to kill her with is in this car,” the first officer told another, then made quotation marks with his fingers. “– Or ‘accidentally.’”
Officers did not immediately supply their own take as to what really happened in that home. In any case, Mason wasn’t around to see the officer’s skeptical statement because he had already been taken to an interview room.
As seen in the footage, he provided details that were sketchy for the purposes of finding Elliott’s home and pinning down her exact identity. For example, he did not know the street number of her home. Eventually, authorities sussed it out.
Deputies for the Miami County Sheriff’s Office said they were dispatched to perform a welfare check that day to a home in the 11000 block of N. Montgomery County Line Road in Union Township. The Miamisburg Police Department told dispatch that Mason went to their department and told them he shot a woman at the Union Township home.
“Upon deputies’ arrival they received no response,” deputies said. “Looking through a window blood was observed in the residence. Forced entry was then made at which time an adult female was found deceased in the residence suffering from what appeared to be a gunshot wound.”
Mason pleaded not guilty at his arraignment on March 28. He remains at the Miami County Jail on a $1 million cash-only bond.
From deputies:
The investigation is on-going. Anyone with information on this case is asked to call the Miami County Sheriff’s Office detective section at 937-440-3965. Anonymous tips can be left on the sheriff’s office website, www.miamicountyohio.gov/sheriff.
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
