Woman with rifle killed in SWAT standoff

COLUMBUS — Police say a woman who shot at officers during a SWAT standoff on the Southeast Side has been killed.

UPDATE 3/26/18 10:22 a.m.: This article has been edited to include the names of the officers, released by police Monday.

Columbus police in a statement Saturday afternoon identified the woman as 25-year-old Kaitlin Marie Demeo, of Columbus. She was fatally shot around 8:00 a.m. Saturday during a standoff that began several hours earlier.

Police spokesman Sgt. Dean Worthington says officers responding to a home at 6366 Whims Road just before 4:30 a.m. on a report of shots being fired were met by gunfire. Worthington says Demeo had barricaded herself inside the home, armed with a rifle.

Worthington says Columbus SWAT and Negotiation Team officers tried to persuade Demeo to surrender.

He says Demeo fired at officers from an upstairs window at around 8:00 a.m., prompting SWAT officers Glenn Thivener and Keith Kise to kill her.

Thivener is a 29-year veteran with the Division of Police and Kise is a 22-year veteran, Wotrhington said.

It’s the fourth police shooting in Columbus this year.