An Ohio police officer has shot and killed an unarmed black man in his bed during an arrest warrant, according to officer body camera videos released by the Columbus, Ohio police department.
Less than a second passed between Ricky Anderson, a 30-year-old officer with the Columbus Division of Police, opening the bedroom door where 20-year-old Donovan Lewis was staying, and the officer shooting him in the abdomen, police have said. Police Chief Elaine Bryant at a conference, the Columbus Dispatch reported.
At that moment, Lewis had a vaping device in his hand, but no weapons were found in the apartmentBryant added, after explaining that the police had a warrant to arrest the young man on charges of domestic violence, assault and mishandling of a firearm.
The Ohio Bureau of Investigation is investigating the murder.the latest in a long line of unarmed black Americans
killed by police in the United States, including,that of the Afro-American George Floydwhich triggered the largest wave of protests and race riots in the US. since the sixties of the last century.
Officers’ videos recorded the shooting of Lewis
Bryant has assured that the agents knocked on the door of the apartment for almost ten minutes and identified themselves as police officers before anyone responded.
Officers’ body camera videos show two men, neither of them Lewis, opening the door and being handcuffed. The agents asked the two men who else was inside. of the apartment. “A dog is going to bite him,” an officer tells them before the canine unit enters the apartment with guns drawn.
The dog barked to indicate that someone was in the bedroom behind a closed door and the officers yelled, saying the dog was coming in. After that, Anderson ties up the dog and opens the door, the video shows. At that moment, Lewis can be seen in the beam of an officer’s flashlight leaning up on her left hand on his mattress as Anderson fires.
An officer arrested Lewis after the shooting
Lewis is repeatedly told by an officer to “go” out of the room. Lewis writhes and moans on his bed as the officers enter to handcuff his hands behind his back and tell him to stop resisting.
After, officers carry a bloodied Lewis down the stairs of the apartment building and provide assistance while
They wait for a doctor. Lewis was pronounced dead at 3:19 am at a nearby hospital, the Columbus Dispatch reported.
“These incidents leave behind grieving family members, unanswered questions from the community, and an additional divide between citizens and the police department,” civil rights group the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People said in a statement. release.
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