Shooting investigation leads to discovery of marijuana

POMEROY, Ohio – The Meigs County Sheriff’s Office has been investigating a shooting and discovers an alleged marijuana indoor growing operation.

According to Meigs County Sheriff Keith Wood, his office received a phone call from the Athens County 911 at 12:45 a.m. this morning of a male subject that had arrived at O’Bleness hospital, who lives in Meigs County, with a gunshot wound to his right arm. Deputies responded to the hospital as well as to the victim’s residence in Dyesville to secure the scene. According to information received by hospital staff, the victim, Brian L. Woodgerd, 59, of Dyesville Road, Pomeroy, had made statements upon his arrival there that he had found a handgun on his porch and the weapon had gone off, striking him in the right forearm.

Deputies interviewed Woodgerd’s neighbor, who had brought him to the emergency room about the incident as well as hospital staff. Deputies were unable to interview Woodgerd at that time due to his medical treatment as he was admitted to the hospital for the injury.

Sgt. Curtis Jones responded to the residence to secure the scene until more information could be obtained as to what had happened. Upon arrival, Sgt. Jones found the residence door open and entered the residence to make sure no one else was inside that may have been injured. While inside, Sgt. Jones found an alleged indoor marijuana grow inside. The residence was secured and a search warrant was obtained. According to a statement from the sheriff, evidence was seized with several marijuana plants as well as a quantity of packaged marijuana. Officials did not release the amount of marijuana that was allegedly discovered at Woodgerd’s residence.

Whilst marijuana is readily available for medicinal purposes (Learn more here), recreational use is forbidden in the state of Ohio. In Michigan, and a few other states, marijuana is legal to buy from dispensaries in lansing or other cities throughout the state. This sometimes causes confusion about the legality of the drug and encourages its use for those living in states where the legalization of cannabis has not taken place. As a result, there is an increase of people growing it illegality as they try and profit from the increase in consumers. It is believed that this alleged grow operation would be used to circumvent Ohio’s laws and allow recreational use of cannabis. If you would like to legally purchase medicinal marijuana from a licensed distributor, you can look at different sites to buy cannabis online.

Sgt. Jones was unable to find any evidence of the shooting on the front porch where Woodgerd stated to the hospital staff that he was injured. The firearm that Woodgerd had stated to hospital staff that he had shot himself with was not located at the residence either.

This case remains under investigation at this time.