Erica Cantrell, an emergency medical technician in Mad River Twp. and a frequent visitor to the campground, had stopped by the grocery store when she saw Hopper’s patrol car headed to the site.
Cantrell returned to the campground just before a shootout began between Michael Ferryman, who killed Hopper, and sheriff’s deputies.
“It was a standoff and then the shooting started,” Cantrell said.
Cantrell was close enough that she soon realized she was in the line of fire, and had to move. She remembered the gunfire seemed to go in small bursts, followed by silence, and then another round of shots. As the day continued, she tried to help out as needed as an EMT.
Other residents who were questioned about the incident said their memories of the shootout are still vivid. It was something they neither wanted to remember nor discuss.
But Cantrell said after the shooting, Ferryman’s actions also unfairly cast a bad light on other residents at the campground.
“He was just an unstable guy that had enough with the neighbor next door and lost it,” Cantrell said.
While she admitted a few weekend campers get into trouble on occasion, most visitors and residents are hard workers who earn their own living, and either use the camp as a quiet home or as a place to relax for a few days near the site’s man-made lake.
Allen Patterson moved into a small trailer in the campground this fall after losing his wife one year ago.
Although he was aware of the shooting, he moved in after a recommendation from his sister.
“We used to come out here when I was a kid and I decided this is where I wanted to come,” Patterson said.
He said it was more crowded when he first arrived, but now only about 25 to 30 residents reside in the campground full-time.
Patterson said the shooting had no impact on his decision to live at Enon Beach, and he said most of those who visit stay only for a few days at a time.
Generally, he said the site is quiet.
“That’s one reason I moved out here,” Patterson said.
Still, the memory of the shooting is on the minds of local officials and law enforcement officers when they respond to emergencies at the campground.
A few weeks after the shooting in January, firefighters were called to the campground when the Airstream trailer belonging to Ferryman was burned to the ground. No one was injured in that incident, which was ruled as an arson.
In August this year, deputies responded to the site to break up a fight. Three people were arrested in that incident, including a 16-year-old girl who was accused of jumping on the back of a Clark County Sheriff’s deputy during the incident.
Clark County Sheriff Gene Kelly said deputies are cautious when responding to the campground, and often send at least two patrol cars, depending on the type of call they receive.
The number of emergency calls to the camp site had almost doubled from 57 in 2009 to 105 in 2010, but was back down to slightly more than 50 in 2011, according to records from the Clark County Sheriff’s Office.
Kathy Estep, a Mad River Twp. trustee, has said the campground has long been a concern for the township, largely because of the close proximity of the campers to one another, and that it was meant to serve as a campground, and not a residential trailer park.
“It was such a shock that something like this could happen in this community,” Estep said.
At the same time, she said the site is in compliance with zoning and other regulations.
She said the site’s owner has since provided a map of the facilities to the Clark County Sheriff’s Office.
Estep said she understands most of the site’s residents are hardworking people. She said her main concern as a township trustee is for the safety of township residents, as well as first responders.
“Our only issues are with the safety of our fire, EMS and sheriff’s deputies,” Estep said.
A review of county records shows the site does comply with local health and zoning codes. It is on land zoned for agriculture, which can serve numerous purposes, and there are no rules dictating how long someone can live at the site.
David Stevens, who owns the campground, declined to comment for the story.
In a written statement, however, he expressed sympathy to Hopper’s family.
“I was fortunate to know this deputy, and she was very professional,” Stevens said. “You could tell that she enjoyed her work, and at the same time she had a friendly but serious demeanor and did her job calmly, efficiently and well.”
Stevens also said he has been trying to make changes to make the campground safer, including increasing scrutiny of prospective tenants.
“There are many ideas about Enon Beach,” Stevens said. “Some of which are incorrect. And we have made some changes, some to make the campground a little safer, easier to work with, a little more attractive and so on. As far as long-term campers go, we have eased out many of them (a little less than half) and we have also turned down quite a few prospective new campers as well.”
An inspection in May by the Clark County Combined Health District showed just less than a dozen violations, including electrical deficiencies at individuals camp sites and other locations, restocking a first-aid kit with supplies, and inadequate marking at some of the camp sites.
But Dan Chatfield, director of Environmental Health, said a follow-up inspection conducted this week showed the majority of the violations discovered in May have since been complied with.
Heather Lauer, a spokeswoman for the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, said water at the campground is sampled and tested differently at sites in which most guests are transient, and those with an annual population of more than 25 people.
Lauer said there have been no problems with the campground’s water samples.
Although the site’s population was recently reduced to the level that requires less stringent tests, she said Stevens has continued to provide more sampling than necessary.
“He’s kind of gone above and beyond what he had to do,” Lauer said.
Estep hopes the additional scrutiny on the site will assist local officials if a similar emergency arises.
“In that respect we’re a little better prepared,” Estep said.
Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0355.
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