Mifflin Township police officer seriously injured in stabbing, man in custody

MIFFLIN TOWNSHIP, Ohio (WCMH) — A Mifflin Township Police Department officer was injured in a stabbing involving a suspect Sunday night, according to the department’s chief.

The incident was reported on the 2900 block of Perdue Avenue at approximately 8 p.m.

Mifflin Township Chief of Police David Briggs confirmed an officer was injured and taken to Grant Medical Center. The officer is in serious condition.

Briggs said the officer was responding to a report of a suspicious person. The suspect has been identified as 36-year-old Bryan Benjamin who court records state was allegedly resisting arrest to the officer and stabbed him multiple times in the head with a homemade knife. Benjamin is due to be arraigned in Franklin County Municipal Court on Tuesday morning.

Benjamin was charged in 2014 in a similar case in Richland County for assaulting a peace officer. He pleaded guilty the following year for two counts of assaulting an officer, harassment with a bodily substance, felonious assault, and obstructing official business. He was sentenced to two years in prison.

Multiple police vehicles including from Columbus and the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office responded to the scene, which is taped off as officers investigate. There was a lot of police activity centered on a silver Ford vehicle which was surrounded by police evidence markers. The car appeared to have a pair of jumper cables sticking out from under the hood, and the driver’s door was open.

The Franklin County Sheriff’s Office is investigating.

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