Columbus suspends police officer for shooting unarmed Black man

A Columbus, Ohio police officer who fatally shot a Black man on Tuesday has been suspended from duty.

This was announced on Wednesday December 23, 2020, by the city’s mayor, less than three weeks after another fatal police shooting of a Black man.

The 47-year-old man killed on Tuesday, whose name has not been revealed, was shot by the officer, who was responding to a non-emergency call about a noise complaint.

When police arrived, they saw an open garage door and a man inside, who approached the police with a mobile phone in his hand, according to a statement posted on Twitter by Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther.

One officer, identified by Columbus television station WSYX as Adam Coy, fired at the man, who later died at a local hospital. The man was visiting someone at that location and no weapon was found at the scene, according to a preliminary investigation.

Ginther announced that Coy did not activate his body cam until after the incident, which is counter to police policy.

“The officer involved did not turn on their body-worn camera – which is unacceptable,” Ginther wrote on Twitter.

“Sworn personnel shall activate the [body worn camera] at the start of an enforcement action or at the first reasonable opportunity to do so. Enforcement actions shall be recorded unless otherwise prohibited,” reads the department’s policy, revised on December 1.

Ginther said, “Our community is still raw and exhausted from the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and, most recently, Casey Goodson, Jr., right here in Columbus.”

The 23-year-old Goodson was killed on December 4 after getting into a confrontation with Franklin County Sheriff’s Deputy Jason Meade, who was working on an unrelated operation. Goodson was spotted by Meade waving a gun and the two had a “verbal exchange”, according to Columbus police.

Meade’s lawyer later said Goodson pointed the gun at Meade, according to TV station WBNS. A Goodson family lawyer said the victim was simply holding sandwiches, not a gun.

Federal authorities, including the FBI, have opened an investigation into Goodson’s shooting.

Joshua Williams took part in a small protest in front of the Ohio state capitol in Columbus following Tuesday’s killing.

“I was outraged,” Williams told WSYX. “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.”