YOUNGSTOWN — Mahoning County Prosecutor Lynn Maro advised Youngstown Police Chief Carl Davis recently that an investigation by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation showed that the actions of the Youngstown police officer who shot and killed Shane Linderman on Sept. 10, 2024, at the Dollar General store on Belmont Avenue were “completely appropriate and justifiable.”

As a result, Maro found no reason to present the matter to a Mahoning County grand jury for it to determine whether the officer had committed any crime through his actions. Linderman, 50, was from the Pittsburgh area.

Maro’s letter stated that despite a policy before she took office to present every “officer involved critical incident” to a county grand jury, her office will present cases to a grand jury “only (in) those cases where even arguably a claim can be made that there was conduct that might be criminal.”

Maro’s letter stated that she and others in her office reviewed the reports, videos and other documents in the case that were turned over to her by BCI on June 4, 2025, and found that the circumstances the officer faced left him with “no choice but to discharge his weapon in order to save himself and others.”

Her letter added that “the amount of force was sufficient but not greater than necessary to quell the immediate threat to (the officer) and to others.”

BCI worked on the case for about nine months, providing prosecutors with body camera video, store surveillance video, interviews with the officers and witnesses in the store, as well as details about the relationship between Linderman and the woman Linderman attacked in the store.

Linderman and the woman, who also was from the Pittsburgh area, had been in a long-term relationship, according to the summary of the completed investigation turned over to Mahoning County prosecutors. The woman died Oct. 16, 2024, in Cleveland from the injuries she suffered in the attack, according to her obituary and BCI documents.

The body camera footage from a Youngstown officer who entered the store about the same time as the unnamed officer who shot Linderman revealed a life-and-death drama frightening to watch.

It shows the officer who fired moving through the front of the store about 5:20 p.m. and stopping at the aisle where Linderman was crouched over the woman. Linderman and the woman were both bloody. The officers said “Get off her” and “Get back now” as well as other statements, as they pointed their firearms at the man.

Linderman appeared to be trying to respond verbally to the officers, but he had not only cut into the neck of the woman, he had also cut his own neck. And he could only make unintelligible sounds, the video shows.

The video has redactions, blacking out Linderman’s hands during the confrontation with officers. The video also blacks out images of the woman. It was not clear by viewing the video whether the woman was alive or not as the confrontation unfolded over about one minute.

HANDCUFFS

About 18 seconds after the confrontation began, it’s apparent that the second officer had taken out his handcuffs, which appeared to cause Linderman to yell and react. The officer who fired moved toward Linderman, who then appears to have swung his right arm toward the woman on the floor and officers to react and give further commands to Linderman.

The second officer also had put gloves on, apparently to try to physically take Linderman into custody. But about 48 seconds into the confrontation, Linderman stood up and moved toward the first officer, and the first officer fired the first shot at Linderman about one second later.

The video shows Linderman advancing several steps toward the officer who fired.

About four seconds later, two more shots could be heard as the second officer said, “Shots fired. Shots fired” into his radio. Linderman lay on the floor as the two officers secured him. The prosecutor summary states that officers “observed a large knife near the woman.” First aid was rendered to Linderman and the woman.

Maro’s letter to the police chief states that when the first two officers went into the store, they saw a “female laying on the ground, seriously injured and Mr. Linderman kneeling over that person.” One of the officers “repeatedly instructed Mr. Linderman to get off the female and to show his hands. Not only did Mr. Linderman refuse to comply, he began ‘slashing’ with the unknown item in his hand. A store employee advised that Linderman still had a knife and a boxcutter,” the letter states.

“Linderman was still on top of (the woman) and refused to comply with any commands. Mr. Linderman then rushed at (the officer who fired). This left (the officer who fired) in the unfortunate position of having no choice but to discharge his weapon in order to save himself and others,” Maro’s letter states.

OFFICER INTERVIEWED

The officer who fired was interviewed by BCI on Oct. 3, 2024. He said he responded to the store after being advised of two people “cutting their throats.” When he arrived he asked two individuals he encountered “What was going on?” and a female said a male inside the store “had just killed a female.” The witness pointed to the area near one of the aisles in the store.

The officer said he “walked around a display and observed (Linderman) on top of a female subject.”

He took a position where he could see Linderman and the woman and gave Linderman commands, but Linderman ignored him. Linderman could not speak because of his injuries, the officer said.

The officer who fired told his partner to holster his weapon “and to move in and try to secure Linderman,” the officer told investigators. At that point, Linderman still had one of his hands near the woman’s throat, but the officer who fired “could not see if Linderman still held a weapon,” the officer said.

He and the other officer “began moving forward. Linderman then reacted and began moving about more energetically and going into his pocket. Both (officers) then stepped back. Linderman then pulled something out of his pocket,” and Linderman began “slashing” with the unknown item in his hand, the officer said.

“At about that time, an unknown store employee advised that Linderman still had a knife and a boxcutter,” the officer said. Linderman then reached down with his hand in the area of the woman’s neck wound, the officer stated. The officers moved slightly closer to Linderman and the woman. And that is when Linderman “took a step forward toward officers,” and the officer fired once and Linderman fell to the ground, the officer told investigators.

The officer’s weapon malfunctioned and the officer stepped back, “cleared” the malfunction and fired two more times at Linderman, who was “still moving on the ground,” the officer said. The two officers “secured” Linderman. One of the officers checked on the woman and saw a “large knife on the floor in the aisle, a short distance from where (the woman) was lying,” the officer told investigators.

75 MINUTES EARLIER

The prosecutor summary states that a physician’s assistant working at St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital that day told investigators that about 3:43 p.m. Sept. 10, 2024, she treated the woman for a medical issue that was blacked out in the summary. Linderman was there and appeared very “jittery,” the summary stated.

He asked the physician’s assistant “Are you going to get the microchip out of her eye?” The physician’s assistant “deflected” Linderman’s behavior. He demanded a CAT scan of his girlfriend’s brain, but the physician’s assistant advised him the hospital does not order a CAT scan for “a piece of glass,” the prosecutor’s summary states.

Linderman and the woman left the hospital without allowing a registration employee to obtain the woman’s information, the physician’s assistant told investigators. Linderman and the woman were in the hospital about 75 minutes before the incident at the Dollar General, which is located just up Belmont Avenue from the hospital.

STORE EMPLOYEE

A Dollar General employee told investigators that Linderman and his girlfriend were shopping together when she noticed that Linderman appeared to be “on something,” the prosecutor summary states. The employee was working in an aisle near the kitchen products, “where Linderman obtained his weapon,” it states.

The worker saw Linderman with a knife in his hand at the end of an aisle, sitting on top of his girlfriend, not letting her up and assaulting her, the employee said. The employee called 911 and was still on the phone when officers arrived, the prosecutor summary states.

A store customer told investigators that when he or she saw Linderman’s girlfriend in the store, she appeared to be “antsy.” The customer heard Linderman say he wanted to buy something, but Linderman’s girlfriend “did not want to spend the money,” the customer said. She saw Linderman grab the woman by the shirt.

DOCUMENTS

The documents generated by BCI can be viewed by the public on the Ohio BCI website under “Investigative documents.”