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Body camera video shows a Columbus, Ohio, police officer fatally shooting an unarmed 20-year-old Black man
Donovan Lewis, 20, died Tuesday after being shot by Columbus Police Officer Ricky Anderson, a 30-year veteran with the Columbus Division of Police assigned to the K9 Unit, based on a police assertion.
The capturing is below investigation by the Ohio Bureau of Prison Investigation, and Anderson is presently on go away, Columbus Police Chief Elaine Bryant stated at a information convention Tuesday. CNN has tried to succeed in Anderson for remark and likewise reached out to the Fraternal Order of Police.
The capturing occurred round 2 a.m. Tuesday at an condo constructing the place uniformed officers had been serving a felony warrant for home violence and assault and improper dealing with of a firearm, Bryant stated on the information convention. A information launch by police indicated the male who was shot, later recognized as Lewis, because the particular person sought within the felony warrant.
“The officers knocked on the door for a number of minutes … acknowledging themselves as Columbus Cops,” Bryant stated.
Police physique digicam video reveals them knocking and calling out to occupants repeatedly for greater than eight minutes. They known as for “Donovan” by identify a number of occasions.
Finally, a person got here to the door and was taken into custody by police, Bryant stated. He advised officers he’d been asleep, they usually took a knife from his pocket. A second man contained in the condo was taken into custody a few minute later.
Officers requested if anybody else was contained in the condo, Bryant stated, however had been unable to find out that.
Anderson and a K9 had been then known as in by Columbus Police to see if anybody else was inside, Bryant stated.
“As soon as the K9 officer arrived on the scene, further bulletins had been made for anybody else inside to come back out or the K9 was going to be launched inside the condo,” Bryant stated.
Within the police physique digicam video, the K9 is seen barking outdoors a again bed room door, then officers enter the condo and warn they will ship a canine in.
An officer is seen opening the bed room door, the place a person is seen on a mattress.
Bodycam video reveals Anderson firing a single shot at a person, later recognized as Lewis, moments after opening the bed room door.
Throughout the information convention, Bryant confirmed the physique digicam video frame-by-frame, asserting that the second Anderson opened fireplace, it appeared Lewis was holding “one thing” in his hand.
A vape pen was later discovered subsequent to Lewis on the mattress, Bryant says. As soon as Lewis was handcuffed, video reveals, officers started rendering support.
Lewis was taken to a close-by hospital, the place he was pronounced useless at 3:19 a.m., based on the Columbus Police assertion.
Taking pictures is newest regulation enforcement
“The bodycam footage launched yesterday afternoon says all of it,” the assertion stated. “In actually the blink of an eye fixed, a Columbus police officer shot and killed Donovan Lewis, an unarmed younger Black man who was alone in his mattress in the midst of the evening.”
“Because of this solely reckless habits by a Columbus Police Officer, a household is left to grieve the lack of such a younger soul.”
Bryant, the police chief, stated Tuesday officers are “put in compromising, doubtlessly life-threatening conditions” day by day, “wherein we’re required to make split-second selections.”
“Because the chief, it’s my job to carry my officers accountable, nevertheless it’s additionally my job to supply them assist and guarantee that I give that to them via the method,” Bryant stated. “In the event that they do the proper issues for the proper causes, we’ll assist them. In the event that they do one thing flawed, they are going to be held accountable.”