On October 12th, 1976, Butler Township Police Patrolman Jahn E. Schmidt was
attempting to make a traffic stop when he suffered critical injuries from being struck by a vehicle.

While assisting other officers in a high-speed pursuit of a stolen car, he had parked his cruiser halfway across an interstate exit ramp to serve as a roadblock. He had just exited and was moving behind it when the stolen car suddenly came flying around the curve. But instead of going in front of the cruiser—where there was room to get by—the car went behind it. That’s when it clipped the cruiser’s rear bumper and then struck Patrolman Schmidt, who was thrown 75 feet onto the grass berm.

Jahn died of his injuries at the scene. The 15-year-old driver was apprehended nearby and later convicted of minor traffic violations. Three years later, he jumped to his death from a water tower.

Patrolman Schmidt was 27 years old at the time of his death, and had served with the Butler Township Police Department for just over a year. He was survived by his wife, 1-year-old son, mother, father, and brother.

Jahn was a U.S. Navy Vietnam War veteran, and had previously served with the Madison Township Police Department and the Preble County Sheriff’s Office. He had attended the Dayton Art Institute and Wilmington College before graduating from Sinclair Community College with a criminal justice degree. He was widely known as an extremely dedicated officer with a superior work record, who could talk to people of all ages. He loved police work, which was what he had always wanted to do.