Authorities in Ohio have released Ring doorbell camera footage which shows a man trying to bust through the front door of a home, leading his ex-girlfriend’s father to open fire and kill him.
Grand jurors earlier this month voted 8 to 1 against filing an indictment in 22-year-old James Douglas Rayl’s death.
As seen on body cam footage, 911 audio, and voicemail audio, Rayl called his ex-girlfriend, whose name has been reported as Allyson Duckro.
“It’s James,” he said in the voicemail. “Just wanted to reach out to you because I just wanted to see how you’re doing. It’s been a while since I’ve talked to you. I feel like–I don’t know what I feel. I do know that I do want to talk to you. It’d be nice. It’d be sweet.”
But Duckro later told investigators she did not answer this message or respond to previous attempts to contact her.
It was on the day following the message, July 31, that Rayl showed up to the home in Sidney, Ohio, after Duckro and her mother returned from dinner. As seen on surveillance footage, the outer glass door was at Rayl’s back as he apparently tried to open the front door, the knob of which is just out of frame.
He started breaking down the door after no one answered the bell. Duckro called 911, voicing fear.
“There’s some guy on my front porch, and he won’t leave, and he’s got his hands behind his back,” she said. She said he left a voicemail on her phone the previous night.
Her father Mitchell Duckro warned Rayl.
“I’ve got a gun,” he said.
The father allegedly opened fire after Rayl broke the door open with his shoulder and attempted to enter.
The actual shooting is not available in the footage above, but Allyson Duckro can be heard screaming. There are gunshots.
“He broke through the door, and my dad shot at him,” she said on the 911 call.
Censored footage shows the fatally injured Rayl falling to the ground by the driveway. He dragged himself toward the family’s garage.
One of the women at the scene said Rayl broke their door in. A picture shows a close up of the busted lock.
“You just saved my life,” Allyson Duckro told her father on the 911 call after the shooting.
After the shooting, the family spoke to police in their home.
“With how he was talking on the phone, I should’ve known he was going to do something stupid,” Allyson Duckro said in bodycam footage.
Shelby County Prosecutor Tim Sell advised the grand jury in the case against Mitchell Duckro, according to WKEF. He reportedly discussed the state’s laws on murder, voluntary manslaughter, reckless homicide, “Stand Your Grand,” and “Castle Doctrine.”
[Screenshot via Law&Crime Network]
