Story at a glance
- Two Columbus police officers failed to turn on their body cameras until after a fatal shooting of an unarmed Black man.
- The man was killed after neighbors called police claiming an unknown man was sitting outside a home in an SUV
- The local police chief has announced an investigation.
A Columbus police officer has been relieved of his duty after he failed to turn on his body camera until after the fatal shooting of an unarmed Black man.
The two responding officers did not activate their body cameras as required by the department until after shooting the 47-year old man, who has not yet been identified except as a visitor of the home he was killed in. While the officer has been ordered to turn in his gun and badge and stripped of police powers pending the outcome of the investigation, he will still be paid, according to the union-negotiated contract.
“The Division invested millions of dollars in these cameras for the express purpose of creating a video and audio record of these kinds of encounters. They provide transparency and accountability, and protect the public, as well as officers, when the facts are in question,” said Columbus Police Chief Thomas Quinlan in a release.
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These are the facts according to the police: Officers responded to a nonemergency call at 1:37 a.m. from a neighbor who saw a man sitting in an SUV for an extended period, turning the vehicle on and off. Police said they saw the garage door open and a man inside who walked toward the officer with a cell phone in his left hand and right hand not visible, according to a review of one of the responding officer’s body-worn camera footage. Neither officer’s body-worn cameras were activated until after one officer shot the man, who died at Riverside Hospital less than an hour after the call.
This June, Columbus police equipped 1,400 police officers with body cameras, requiring their use whenever interacting with community members in “enforcement actions,” then-Chief Kim Jacobs told a local news station.
“They’re turning it on on practically all of their actions, minus the ones that are for public meetings and various other things,” Jacobs told WOSU at the time.
The shooting itself was captured on video, police revealed in a statement on Twitter, thanks to a camera function that allows for a 60-second “look back,” but there is no audio. Deeming the situation a “non-emergency,” police did not engage lights or sirens as they arrived or activate the dash camera in the police cruiser. Body camera footage from after the shooting shows “a delay in rendering of first aid.” Police said the man shot was a visitor at the home and did not have a weapon on the scene.
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“This is a tragedy on many levels,” said Quinlan in the release. “Most importantly, a life has been lost. That must be our focus going forward. We know that [Bureau of Criminal Investigation] will conduct a thorough, independent investigation. We promise that we will provide as much transparency as possible on our part, both with investigators and the public. Our community deserves the facts. If evidence determines that laws or policies were violated, officers will be held accountable.”
The shooting comes just weeks after another unarmed Black man, 23-year-old Casey Goodson Jr., was shot and killed by a local sheriff’s deputy. Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who has represented other Black victims of police violence, denounced the shooting on Twitter.
Police killed yet another Black man in Columbus, OH. To make matters worse, they neglected to turn on their body cameras until AFTER shooting the man. This is UNACCEPTABLE! Police are not above the law & should be PROTECTING all citizens, not killing them!https://t.co/31tyA83XNa
— Ben Crump (@AttorneyCrump) December 23, 2020
“I was outraged. Like, are we still doing this? You know, we just got done marching for Casey and we’ve been doing this all summer. It’s unbelievable,” community member Joshua Williams told WSYX.
Another protestor, Dejuan Sharp, called for accountability.
“I understand it’s a hard job to be a police officer. But we have trust and faith in police officers because they should be held accountable to a higher standard than normal citizens,” Sharp told WSYX.
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