Police killing of Black man in Ohio ‘mindless’, lawyer says | Black Lives Matter Information

Lawyer says Ohio police officer used ‘extreme lethal drive’ when he fatally shot Donovan Lewis, 20, in his mattress.

Police within the US metropolis of Columbus, Ohio have come below heavy criticism after the discharge of body-worn digital camera footage displaying an officer fatally capturing a Black man in his mattress throughout an try and serve an arrest warrant.

Donovan Lewis, 20, was unarmed when he was shot within the early hours of Tuesday by Ricky Anderson, a 30-year veteran of the Columbus Division of Police, the Columbus Dispatch reported, citing a information convention by metropolis police.

Lower than a second handed between Anderson pushing open the bed room door as a police canine barked earlier than the officer fired a single shot into Lewis’ stomach, Police Chief Elaine Bryant informed reporters.

It appeared that Lewis had a vaping system in his hand, and no weapons had been discovered within the residence, Bryant mentioned. Police had a warrant to arrest Lewis on prices of home violence, assault and the improper dealing with of a firearm, the police chief additionally mentioned.

“In actually the blink of a watch, 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.”
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The incident is the newest in a protracted string of unarmed Black people killed by police in the United States, lots of which have spurred mass demonstrations demanding an finish to lethal police violence and racial injustice.

On Thursday, Rex Elliott, a lawyer representing the Lewis household mentioned not sufficient has occurred in Columbus to change policing practices regardless of a number of cases of white officers within the metropolis capturing Black folks.

“There could be no query that extreme lethal drive was recklessly utilized by officer Anderson when he shot and killed an unarmed Black man,” Elliott mentioned throughout a information convention.

“What number of extra lives are going to be misplaced to the sort of reckless exercise? What number of extra younger Black lives shall be misplaced?” he mentioned. “What number of extra households like Donovan’s might want to seem at information conferences like this one earlier than our leaders do sufficient to place a cease to those barbaric killings?”

The US Division of Justice agreed in 2021 to assessment Columbus police division practices after a sequence of deadly police shootings of Black folks — together with the April 2021 killing of 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant — and the town’s response to 2020 racial justice protests.

As well as, a three-year police contract authorized final 12 months offered $200,000 buyouts for as much as 100 officers with at the least 25 years of expertise, with a aim of clearing the decks of workers who may not be on board with the division’s new route.

In the meantime, the Ohio Bureau of Investigation has mentioned it’s going to examine Lewis’s killing.

The probe should have a look at “the totality of the circumstances”, Mark Collins, a lawyer representing Anderson, the officer who shot Lewis, mentioned on Thursday.

In such instances, “we’re expressly forbidden from utilizing 20/20 hindsight, as a result of in contrast to all of us, officers aren’t afforded the posh of armchair reflection when they’re confronted with quickly evolving, risky encounters in harmful conditions,” Collins mentioned.

In his remarks on Thursday, Elliott questioned the necessity for an early-morning operation. “The fact is that felony warrants are executed each day in sunlight hours,” he mentioned, including that he plans to file a civil lawsuit in opposition to Anderson and the town.

In Could of final 12 months, Columbus reached a $10m settlement with the household of Andre Hill, a person who was shot lifeless in December 2020 as he emerged from a storage holding his cell phone. Officer Adam Coy has pleaded not responsible to homicide prices and is about for trial in November.

In December, the town additionally agreed to pay $5.75m to folks injured in the course of the 2020 racial justice and police brutality protests.