YOUNGSTOWN — Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office deputy Joe Hamilton and other deputies were working at the front entrance to the Mahoning County Courthouse May 28 when an explosion in the basement of the Realty Tower down Market Street destroyed the first floor and basement.

He and deputy Jim Mullins exchanged a few words while they went outside and saw a “big cloud of dust” two blocks down. “I radioed to Sgt. (Ron) Evans, and I told him I was responding to an explosion,” Hamilton said.

He and Mullins arrived at the Realty Tower about 30 seconds later. Hamilton moved a cone in front of a car heading toward the building and had the driver turn around. Then the deputies saw individuals with cellphones getting up close to the structure and instructed them to get back. All of it was captured on Hamilton’s body camera, which was shown on local television and later picked up and aired on at least one national broadcast.

Hamilton radioed to his dispatch center, “We’ve got civilians over here screaming for help,” he said. “I can see them.” Sirens were blaring, but Hamilton and Mullins were the only first responders there.

“At least in law enforcement, no amount of training can prepare you for responding to an incident like that,” Hamilton said during an interview last week.

Hamilton could see the devastation to the building, with almost 100% of the first floor now in the basement. Only fragments were left around the columns.

“You could hear the gas still hissing,” Hamilton said. The explosion also heaved the basement floor upward, breaking a waterline and causing water to flow out of it.

“You smell the gas without a doubt, just that sour, sulfuric smell of gas,” he said. He immediately feared that there could be a secondary explosion and wanted everyone to get back from the building, he said. He focused on getting them back.

Hamilton, who has worked as a deputy for seven years, said his wife asked him later if his thoughts turned to his own safety.

“I told her ‘It didn’t cross my mind for a second I was in danger. I didn’t even think about me,'” he said. “I knew there were people who were screaming and needed help, and I had to help them, right? It’s just what we do.” He added, “I think anyone else in my shoes would have done the same thing. That’s the oath we take. That is the job we do.”

Hamilton saw a man near a pillar on the edge of the exploded first floor.

“He must have been lucky enough that he didn’t fall into the basement. He was covered in debris and dust. He was injured. You could tell that he needed help. He was in shock,” he said.

Hamilton said he gave the man motions with his hands to have him stay still so he did not fall into the basement, which would have been a deep drop. It appeared the man could not hear, Hamilton said. Within a minute of the deputies running to the scene, a fire truck arrived.

“When we ended up getting him out, he said he believed there were more people in there,” Hamilton said.

Hamilton immediately approached a firefighter near his fire truck and said, “What can we do to help?” And the firefighter said “Help me get this ladder.” Hamilton replied, “Yea, come on, come on” as Hamilton grabbed one end and they carried it to the front corner of the building close to East Federal Street.

Hamilton approached Capt. Tommy Gibbs of the Youngstown Fire Department near the corner of the building and said, “We got people trapped in the basement, people are telling me.”

Gibbs asked Hamilton, “‘Will you hold this ladder? I’ve got to get down there.”

The two men did not know each other.

“Yea. Go. Go,” Hamilton said, grasping the top of the ladder. It was about three minutes after the explosion.

The ladder was on uneven surfaces, especially the floor, but Hamilton reassured Gibbs. “Go. I got it. You aren’t going nowhere. I got it. I’m telling you,” he said. Hamilton would later move a piece of concrete wall that was in the way, improving the stability of the ladder.

When Gibbs located a woman in the basement, he carried her on his back up the ladder and handed her off to Hamilton and a firefighter, and two of them carried her away from the building and placed her in the grass as she screamed in pain.

She and the man who was rescued both appeared to be in shock, Hamilton said. The man, whose first name was Chuck, was later photographed at the base of the “Man on the monument” in the Central Square with blood and dust on his face and clothing. People brought him water and helped him until he could be taken for treatment.

In the background, first responders could be seen continuing the rescue efforts.

The woman, Caroline Pizarro, an employee of the Chase Bank, which occupied the first floor of the building, suffered serious injuries. She was pregnant at the time, Hamilton said. One bank employee, Akil Drake, 27, died in the explosion.

Hamilton returned to the front corner of the Realty Tower, where he offered to go down the ladder into the basement to help.

Then he made the firefighters aware that “Chuck” had indicated there were victims toward the rear of the building, and the rescue moved in that direction.

At one point, firefighters advised everyone there was an “active gas leak” and asked Hamilton and the several other law enforcement officers to leave the area.

“The firefighters started putting on their masks,” Hamilton said. He went to the back of the building, where the rescue efforts continued, he said.

There was a person trapped in an apartment on the second floor of the building.

Eventually, Sgt. Evans made Hamilton get away from the building. Hours later, Hamilton and several other deputies who had been working at the courthouse were seen still helping with crowd control.

Hamilton said people should not think he was the only deputy involved in the rescues, despite what his body camera showed. “There were five deputies behind me that you don’t get to see on body cam,” he said. “They didn’t activate their body cam, so you don’t get to see their point of view, but you get to see mine.” Several officers from the Youngstown Police Department’s Neighborhood Response Unit also were assisting.

Later in the year, Hamilton’s body camera showed he and fellow deputies Ryley Sheptock and Michael Rosa chasing a juvenile with a gun through the Canfield Fair after a person reported the youth making threatening remarks about having a weapon.

Hamilton caught up to the boy, 17, while running with his stun gun ready to deploy. The youth got on the ground and was taken into custody. Another deputy found the boy’s gun nearby. The boy was charged in Mahoning County Juvenile Court with carrying a concealed weapon and tampering with evidence.

Hamilton said 2024 was a pretty memorable year.

“There were a lot of emergencies, a lot of arrests I made, a lot of incidents in 2024. I don’t think I will ever forget, obviously, the explosion. It was a busy year,” his most memorable year in law enforcement so far, he said.

The things he did in 2024 pale in comparison to what officers in Youngstown deal with, he said. “They are getting into use-of-forces and doing things every day. Mine just happened to be captured at the right time on camera. For me, it was an interesting year.”