COLUMBUS – An honor escort of law enforcement officers was there to greet Franklin County Sheriff’s Deputy Jacob “Jake” Heaberlin upon his release from OhioHealth Grant Medical Center Tuesday afternoon, according to a report in The Columbus Dispatch.
We are HAPPY to release the following information: Deputy Jacob “Jake” Heaberlin has been released from Grant Hospital! He was escorted home by his fellow deputies and @ColumbusPolice Motor & Freeway Units! Central Ohio THANK YOU for all of thoughts & Prayers! #ThinBlueline pic.twitter.com/6iUZ4HLPzB
— Franklin County Sheriff’s Office (@OHFCSO) May 22, 2018
Heaberlin, 29, was wounded in the lower abdomen May 12 when he and two Franklin Township Police officers became involved in an exchange of gunfire with Darrell Bruffy, 55, of Orient, on Harrisburg Pike and Eakin Road. Bruffy died as a result.
Heaberlin had picked up the pursuit of Bruffy, who was driving a Ford F250 pickup truck erratically and had struck a vehicle in the area of Bohnburg Avenue and Big Run Bluffs Boulevard on Columbus’ West Side before taking off. Heaberlin tried to make a stop near Clime Road but Bruffy kept going.
Bruffy ran his pickup into a utility pole in front of a Shell station on the corner at Harrisburg Pike and Eakin. Heaberlin, with gun drawn, approached the driver’s side and ordered Bruffy to “get out of the car”, according to eyewitness accounts.
What followed was three separate bursts of more than 30 shots in less than a minute.
Both Heaberlin and Bruffy were down. The bullet that struck Heaberlin was just below his armored vest.
Heaberlin had been in OhioHealth Grant Medical Center since the shootout. Deputies from the Franklin County Sheriff’s office, along with officers from Columbus Police Traffic Control Motorcycle Unit were there to give him an honor escort home, according to a sheriff’s office post on social media.