newsnews

Former Officer Shot in Lee Co. Home

Former Officer Shot in Lee Co. Home (Added: February 04, 2010)

0 Ratings | 1 Video Views

By By Sarah Panko
Published: February 04, 2010

43 year old Tommie Swint, a former police officer from Trotwood, Ohio was found dead inside his Lee County home in Phenix City this afternoon. He was wanted in connection with an Ohio murder. News 3 has obtained the Indictment sent to Lee Co. officers from Montgomery County, Ohio. Grand Jurors indicted Swint for the 1991 murder of Tina Ivery. Police say Ivery had been strangled, wrapped in a plastic bag and left in a pile of garbage in December of 1991. New DNA and fingerprints is what linked Swint to the case.
The Indictment is what led Lee County Sheriff's officials to Steeple Crest apartments on River Chase Drive. According to Sheriff Jones, Steeple Crest is near Phenix City but it is still considered Lee County. Sheriff Jones said as they approached Swint's Apartment with the Indictment and Warrant, they heard what they believe to be was a gunshot. When police entered the apartment they found Swint with a gun shot wound to the head. Sheriff Jones said they were going to hold Swint at the Lee County Detention Facility until he could be extradited to Ohio.
According to the Dayton newspaper, Swint, a former Marine, worked as a correctional officer at a Ohio state prison before he joined the Trotwood Police Department in 2007. Swint’s career with the department was over two months after it started, according to the newspaper. He was apparently fired after Richmond, Ind., police suspected him in the 2001 disappearance of Marilyn “Niqui” McCown, a 28-year-old single mother, from a Richmond Laundromat. McCown and Swint knew each other from working at the prison at the same time, the newspaper reported. Sheriff Jones said the Alabama Bureau of Investigation is now handling the case.