Sheriff’s deputy, suspect dead in Ohio standoff

By the time it was over, the deputy and the suspected shooter were dead, and a police officer was wounded in a shootout with the suspect.

“This is the worst day of my entire law enforcement career,’’ said Clark County Sheriff Gene Kelly, who has been sheriff for 24 years.

Deputy Suzanne Hopper was shot Saturday as she tried to photograph a footprint in the Enon Beach mobile-home park in western Ohio, Kelly said.

Hopper, who was married last year and had two children, didn’t have the opportunity to return fire or take cover, he said.

Police officers were trying to talk to the shooting suspect when he fired on them from inside a trailer, and a German Township officer was wounded in an exchange of gunfire, Kelly said.

There were “many, many, many’’ shots fired by the suspect and eight officers, he said.

The wounded officer, Jeremy Blum, was hospitalized in fair condition, a hospital supervisor said.

Authorities were investigating and weren’t ready to say whether police gunfire killed the suspect, who was identified as Michael Ferryman, 57, Kelly said.

It’s possible Ferryman, who had “a history’’ with the sheriff’s office, killed himself, he said.

Enon Beach has some summer-only residents and others who live there year-round. A portion of Interstate 70 was closed twice for a total of about an hour because the trailer park is so close to the roadway, Ohio State Highway Patrol Lieutenant Gary Lewis said.

Enon Beach resident Angelina Inman said she looked out of her trailer at the park, which sits near a highway, to see the deputy lying on the ground.

She watched as another officer tried to reach her body, but the police determined it was unsafe to approach.

Sergeant Dustin White had accompanied Hopper to the trailer park, which is just southwest of Springfield and about 50 miles west of Columbus, and was interviewing a family whose trailer had been shot at when he heard Hopper scream and tried to go to her, Kelly said.