DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) — Prosecuting Attorney Mat Heck announced the indictment of James Fickling Tuesday afternoon.
The Montgomery County Grand Jury has charged Fickling with one count of felonious assault, three counts of kidnapping, one count of attempted felonious assault, one count of assault on a firefighter, one count of assault on a police officer, one count of inducing panic, three counts of obstructing official business, and one count of menacing.
Heck noted the last charge came from an altercation between a citizen and Fickling before he entered the building. He did not specify how many years Fickling faces.
“Any type of a violent assault is bad, but this is one of the worst I’ve ever seen.” said Heck in the press conference. “This is unrelenting, and he just is terrible the way he attacks this woman.”
Fickling, 25, entered the building around 5 p.m. on Oct. 21. He proceeded to strip his clothes off, do yoga poses, and pull the building’s fire alarms before brutally attacking a 66-year-old security guard.
The security guard’s injuries include eye-gouging which has left her blind in both eyes. She is still in the hospital as she recovers from the attack.
Heck shared in the press conference that Fickling was reportedly high on “heroin and fentanyl.”
When firefighters arrived on the scene, the Defendant proceeded to attack the firefighters. Several firefighters and a Dayton police officer sustained injuries before Fickling was taken into custody.
Heck says the violence he saw in the attacks was “unimaginable.”
“I mean, you see things every day. As long as I’ve been doing this, and what we see in our office, my prosecutors and I say, ‘you think you can’t see anything any worse,’ or ‘we’ve seen it all,'” Heck said. “And yet there’s always something that seems to happen that makes you say, ‘I can’t believe this.’ And this is one of those.”
The defendant had a prior incident which will be going to the Grand Jury next week. The situation involved “a gun in an automobile.”
Fickling was screened at that time for diversions since he had no priors.
“He was examined at that time and screened. There were no indications of mental problems or anything like that.” Heck said in the press conference.
Fickling is currently in custody at the Montgomery County Jail. He is being held on a $750,000 bond. He will be arraigned on Thursday, Nov. 2 at 8:30 a.m.