Once Upon a NIBIN Time in Cleveland
In June of 2013, Cleveland’s WKYC-TV aired a revealing investigative report exposing the minimal amount of ballistic data local police agencies were submitting to the National Integrated Ballistics Information Network (NIBIN) - or more pointedly, how little some were using it at all. [1]
When properly staffed, equipped, and managed, programs like NIBIN enable police officers to be more effective in identifying and stopping armed criminals.
Of course, NIBIN only works when law enforcement submits evidence to it. That is when ballistics evidence collected from all crime scenes and test fires discharged from all NIBIN-eligible suspected crime guns taken into police custody are submitted for NIBIN test-firing and processing.
That is what reporter Tom Meyer and producer Rick Hepp of Channel 3 were trying to understand when they spent months poring over the logs of firearm-related evidence of police agencies in Northeastern Ohio.
The news team found that in larger cities, Cleveland, Lorain, Akron, Canton, and Painesville, they tend to use the NIBIN database more routinely. However, the investigation also learned that many surrounding departments only submitted a small percentage of the guns they seized for NIBIN processing.
A Cry for Justice
The cry for justice came through loud and clear in the Channel 3 piece when Ms.Tara Price expressed frustration that the person who shot and killed her son, Sherwon Wanzo, had yet to be identified.
She said: "Why wouldn't you be using the [NIBIN] system - You have a system that you could use. And it's a possibility that you might get a hit - So, I'm very upset. I'm very disappointed". [1]
The news piece also featured Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine. He said NIBIN is a great tool, but it is underutilized. He told the news team that he would make it a priority to make sure that police forces know about NIBIN and use it for every gun.
DeWine said, "I will guarantee you we will solve hundreds and hundreds of more crimes - we will get criminals off the streets, and we will ultimately save lives." [1]
Walking his talk, he did just what he said he would do and sent copies of the letter below to each of Ohio’s law enforcement agencies.
The Attorney General understood that leaders like him had a critical role to play in ensuring the effective use of NIBIN—and, in fact, any violent crime intelligence system. These systems don’t succeed on their own. They require support, funding, and most importantly, clear policies to guide their consistent and responsible use.
Think about seat belts. Today, it’s second nature for most people to buckle up the moment they get into a car. But it wasn’t always that way. When seat belts were first introduced, they sparked heated debate.
The engineers who invented seat belts and the automakers who installed them couldn’t force anyone to use them. It took leadership. It took policymakers willing to implement mandates and set standards, even if it meant enduring a few annoying buzzers along the way.
The same is true for NIBIN. Technology alone isn’t enough. Leadership, policy and a commitment to saving lives make the difference.
When armed criminals harm or take lives, justice demands action. Fortunately, our criminal justice system isn't powerless—we have proven tools and expert methods used by police, forensic scientists, and prosecutors to identify, track, and stop violent offenders. These tools don't just help solve crimes—they help save lives and restore peace to our communities.
Not unlike our experience with seat belts, the adoption of new crime-fighting technologies has varied: some were early adopters, others waited, and some governments eventually had to mandate their use.
When we don’t use the tools that we have to solve violent crimes, we risk allowing killers to walk free, putting more lives in danger, just like failing to buckle up puts us at greater risk on the road. It wasn’t until seat belt laws were enforced that most people began to use them consistently.
Today, there’s a growing movement to treat the investigation of gun crimes—and the enforcement of existing gun laws—as a matter of enforceable policy and sufficient resourcing. To save lives, we must use every available tool.
In 2018, Mike DeWine was elected Governor of Ohio and took office in January 2019. At that time, access to NIBIN in Ohio was still limited, and its potential as a crime-fighting tool was not yet fully recognized. As a result, delays in ballistic evidence processing were common.
By 2020, Ohio’s major cities experienced a troubling surge in gun violence, with an average 26% increase in reported gun crimes. The crisis deepened in 2021, which became the deadliest year on record, according to the Ohio Department of Health. That year, a staggering 1,845 people were killed by firearms, and that number may have risen as data collection continued.[2]
Money Talks, it “don’t” Sing & Dance - but it Sure Walks!
Almost 10 years prior, when he was still the Attorney General, Governor DeWine went on record telling the Channel 3 news team that he would make it a priority to make sure that police forces know about NIBIN and use it for every gun.
Three months into his second term as Governor, in 2022, Ohio was on track to beat its 2021 murder record. Governor Mike DeWine took action to walk his talk about NIBIN. DeWine, Attorney General Dave Yost, and Ohio State Highway Patrol Superintendent Col. Richard Fambro announced a joint initiative to use technology to save lives. As part of the new Ohio Ballistics Testing Initiative, the Ohio Department of Public Safety’s Office of Criminal Justice Services awarded $10.5 million to the AG's Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) and Ohio State Highway Patrol (OSHP) to increase the number of NIBIN sites in Ohio from seven (7) to sixteen (16).
"With the help of this initiative, we are confident that more gunmen will be brought to justice, future shootings will be prevented, and lives will be saved," DeWine said. [3]
"When we saw the body count start piling up in 2020 and 2021 around the state, I started doing a deep dive," Yost said. "In April of last year, I gave my team direction to figure out how we could expand NIBIN so that we have an excellent, all-covered corner-to-corner database in Ohio." [3]
Today, thanks to then-Attorney General Mike DeWine—now Governor—and his Ballistic Testing Initiative, Ohio has significantly expanded its capacity to combat violent crime. With critical support from federal and state grants, the state established Crime Gun Intelligence Centers and broadened access to NIBIN, turning vision into action.
In July 2023, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced that law enforcement agencies across Ohio now have direct access to a national digital ballistics database through the Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI). Crime laboratories in Bowling Green, London, and Richfield had recently added hardware connected to NIBIN and stood ready to accept suspected crime guns and cartridge cases submitted by law enforcement. [4]
NIBIN, operated by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), makes 3D scans of cartridge cases and compares those to millions of other images in the database, thereby identifying links to previously unconnected gun crimes in Ohio and across the country.
The BCI labs are directly linked to the ATF’s NIBIN National Correlational and Training Center (NNCTC) in Alabama, so cartridge cases collected from crime scenes can be sent through NIBIN to the center and analyzed within hours. The results provided to local detectives, when combined with other evidence, can lead to faster identification of criminals.
As part of its NIBIN expansion, BCI recently brought online five additional NIBIN units – two each in Bowling Green and London, and one in Richfield, which previously housed the bureau’s only NIBIN station. This expanded access is crucial because NIBIN’s effectiveness as a crime-fighting tool improves as the database grows. The more cartridge cases that are entered into NIBIN, the better the chances of linking gun crimes and capturing criminals. [4]
In 2023, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced the Central Ohio Crime Gun Intelligence Center (CGIC). To curb gun violence, the Central Ohio CGIC is the second full-scale crime gun intelligence center in Ohio, joining the center started by the Cincinnati Police Department in 2021. [5]
ATF developed the CGIC concept to help law enforcement connect gun crimes using NIBIN and other types of crime gun intelligence. The new CGIC will have two NIBIN systems and will help investigators essentially map a gun’s criminal history to determine when it’s been fired and where.
“They’re sharing intelligence, they’re sharing leads, they’re sharing evidence analysis, all in real-time to identify shooters. This concept, which was originally developed by the ATF, was law enforcement from various jurisdictions under one roof with one mission to identify those responsible for gun violence and send them to prison so they can’t hurt anyone else.” DeWine said. [5]
Ohio’s NIBIN Successes Happen Where the Rubber Meets the Road
Today, with expanded access and greater awareness thanks to Ohio’s leaders, DeWine, Yost, and Fambro, NIBIN is helping transform how quickly and effectively law enforcement can link shootings and deliver justice.
For example:
1) 2019 Cold Case - Who Killed Sheila Wallace? [6]
Sheila Wallace, a 58-year-old Cleveland resident, was tragically shot and killed while walking her dog in McGowan Park in January 2019. The senseless crime stunned her community and went cold for over a year due to a lack of leads or motive. A breakthrough came when police recovered a Glock 9mm discarded by suspect DaJuan Evens after a separate shooting and car chase. The firearm was processed by the Cuyahoga County Regional Forensic Science Laboratory and linked via the ATF’s National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN) to Sheila’s unsolved murder. Further forensic evidence, including DNA, tied the gun to Evens. In May 2023, Evens, then 22, was indicted for Sheila’s murder. The case highlights the vital role of NIBIN and crime gun intelligence in solving cold cases and delivering justice to victims' families.
2) July 2, 2025 - 19-year-old man indicted in East Cleveland rape of mother and daughter, linked to multiple shootings [7]
Nineteen-year-old Doyral Wynn has been indicted by a Cuyahoga County grand jury on more than 40 charges, including the rape of a mother and daughter in East Cleveland and multiple unrelated shootings across Cleveland.
The charges against him include rape, kidnapping, aggravated robbery, felonious assault, and multiple weapons violations. According to Prosecutor Michael O’Malley, Wynn’s actions demonstrate a disturbing pattern of violence.
The most serious incident occurred on May 2, 2024, when a 37-year-old woman and her 19-year-old daughter were walking home on Hayden Avenue in East Cleveland. Prosecutors say Wynn, dressed in black and wearing a mask, approached them at gunpoint, demanded their belongings, and forced them into a nearby field where he sexually assaulted them both. After the assault, he fired two shots into the air before letting them go. The victims immediately reported the crime to police, and investigators recovered two shell casings from the scene.
On March 7, 2025, Wynn allegedly fired two shots at a vehicle carrying a man, his wife, and their two young children on East 133rd Street in Cleveland. No one was injured, and a shell casing recovered at the scene matched one from the earlier rape case through the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN). A search warrant executed on April 9 at a residence where Wynn had been staying led to the recovery of seven firearms from a safe containing his Social Security card. He was arrested by Cleveland police on April 18, in possession of the gun linked to both the rape and the March shooting. That weapon had been reported stolen in 2023.
Wynn also faces charges related to four additional shootings between February 20 and July 15, 2024, near Brackland Avenue and Eddy Road, and was allegedly found with a firearm during a separate traffic accident.
The investigation that followed was led by the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department, with critical support from the Cleveland and East Cleveland Police Departments, ATF Cleveland, and the Crime Gun Intelligence Center.
Prosecutors say firearm evidence, DNA, and witness testimony link Wynn to the crimes. O’Malley described him as someone whose “violence knows no boundaries,” capable of harming anyone at any time.
Ten States Declare NIBIN Their Policy
Ten states, beginning with New Jersey in 2013 and most recently with Rhode Island in June of 2025, have enacted legislative NIBIN mandates. The states of Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Nevada, New Jersey, and New York, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, have made the use of NIBIN, and in many cases eTrace, statewide policy by enacting laws requiring law enforcement agencies to utilize these systems when crime guns and other specified items of shooting-related evidence are taken into custody. (Gagliardi).
So, did they all live happily ever after?
Maybe not—but with a much better chance at justice, resolution, and a measure of peace.
The ten-year journey from sporadic action to statewide transformation began with a televised investigative report by Tom Meyers, exposing the inconsistent use of NIBIN in Ohio. It gained urgency through the heartbreaking plea of a mother—whose son, Sherwon Wanzo, was killed in an unsolved shooting—calling on police to use every tool available to bring justice. That call echoed across the state and sparked a movement.
What followed was not luck or coincidence, but the relentless will of leaders who refused to accept the status quo. Governor Mike DeWine, Attorney General David Yost, and Ohio State Highway Patrol Superintendent Colonel Richard Fambro didn’t just speak—they acted. They invested. They led. And they delivered.
Because of their commitment, NIBIN sites were expanded across Ohio. Crime Gun Intelligence Centers were established. Funding was secured. A culture of accountability and innovation took root.
Today, Ohio’s law enforcement agencies are armed with advanced technology, rapid data analysis, and a statewide network that connects local incidents to national patterns. Crime guns no longer slip through the cracks. Criminals no longer hide behind jurisdictional lines.
Ohio is safer—not by chance, but by choice. The choice to lead with courage. The choice to act with urgency. And the choice to unleash the full power of modern crime-fighting tools in defense of every community.
Governor DeWine, your leadership team, and all the men and women of Ohio law enforcement – we at the RF Factor salute you!
End Notes:
[1] http://www.wkyc.com/news/article/302648/45/Investigator-Thousands-of-crime-guns-go-untested
Excellent write-up, Pete. Like the saying goes, “We have the technology. We can rebuild it and make it better than it was. Bigger…faster…stronger.” We need leaders to develop the vision, then a plan to get us there, & then lead the way through action to get us there. Kudos to the leaders, policy makers, & professionals of Ohio for their work.
This highlights the critical role of technology in modern policing. NIBIN's precision in linking firearms to crime scenes offers a powerful tool for investigators. Its effectiveness hinges on proper implementation and skilled analysis, ensuring that those who commit violent acts are brought to justice, contributing significantly to community safety and reinforcing the importance of investing in forensic resources.