CINCINNATI — Benjamin Wood, a former P&G employee that was fired in 2021, has been indicted after threats he made toward the company caused P&G's downtown Cincinnati office to close down earlier this week.
Wood, 30, is charged with two counts of inducing panic, a fourth degree felony that could lead to a maximum possible sentence of 18 months in prison if he is convicted on all charges.
"I am grateful for the efforts of the Cincinnati Police Department and the Kenton County Sheriffs for being so vigilant," Hamilton County Prosecutor Joseph Deters said.
The indictment comes after CPD was contacted by the Kenton County Sheriff's Office on May 17 regarding concerning statements made by Wood, including a statement saying he was going to "shut down the world via Cincinnati tomorrow." Wood also allegedly sent an email to a former CEO telling him he was now in control and also told his family last weekend that he was now running P&G.
Law enforcement said it was aware that Wood had access to firearms.
As a result, P&G shut down its Cincinnati headquarters around 5:30 a.m. on Wednesday out of an abundance of caution. SWAT officers were stationed outside of P&G's offices all day, and employees received texts and emails instructing them to not come into work because the offices were shut down.
Cincinnati SWAT outside P&G headquarters. pic.twitter.com/nFRTW6WVGi
— Jay Warren (@JayWarrenWCPO) May 18, 2022
All other Cincinnati-area P&G locations remained open on Wednesday and the downtown offices reopened on Thursday.
Ohio State Highway Patrol said a safety bulletin sent out to police departments on Tuesday indicated that Wood had a deactivated P&G work badge, had access to firearms, had threatened officers in the past and that his family believed he was suffering from mental illness.
Wood was not wanted for criminal charges at the time the bulletin was sent out.
Wood was seized by the Kenton County Sheriff's Office at his Covington home on May 18 under a mental health warrant. He was taken to St. Elizabeth Hospital.
Despite not having a criminal history, Wood does have a history of multiple run-ins with different police departments.
Edgewood police provided WCPO a log of police runs to an address on Canterbury Lane. In March 2021, police were called to a domestic/property dispute involving Wood. According to the incident report, when officers arrived, Wood told them "officers would die" if they attempted to approach.
Police, advised by Commonwealth Attorney Rob Sanders, did not "force the issue" since no criminal action was taken and eventually police left the scene.
"We did not have enough, even though he was threatening that he would put us down if we approached," an officer wrote in the report.
WCPO also received incident reports from Woods' Covington address where he was taken into custody.
According to those reports, police were at the Covington home twice on Wednesday before he was taken in custody, once for a traffic stop and then again for a well-being check.
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