Officer in stomping case fired
Columbus Police Officer Zachary Rosen, who stomped on a shooting suspect as he was being taken into custody in April, has been fired.
Rosen, 32, stomped once with his left foot on a suspect who was lying stomach down and handcuffed at the end of a driveway in Linden in the April 8 incident that was captured on video. The suspect, Demarko Anderson, is accused of shooting up a house, assaulting an officer and fleeing before the assaulted officer ran him down.
Mayor Andrew J. Ginther and city council members had publicly
Contacted in Pittsburgh on Monday, Grishman, 35, said she has a motorized wheelchair that was still in electric mode, not in a “free-wheel” mode, when the police officer started pushing her chair. She said the officer pushed it a few feet, then Grishman said she “went down partly, then the rest of the way.” The video shows her falling face first, hands out ahead of her, sprawled on the floor.
Asked whether she thought the officer dumped her out of the chair, Grishman told The Dispatch, “I don’t know. The video very clearly looks like I’ve been tipped out.
“I do not think it was an accident just like that,” said Grishman, who said she has multiple sclerosis and is a member of the disability rights group ADAPT.
“The whole thing was just an entire attempt to deal with us as harshly as possible,” she said. “Police came in and yelled at us to move, move, move.”
Garden said Monday that it is difficult to tell from the video whether Grishman fell out of the wheelchair or if the Columbus police officer tipped her out.
“It does appear the back of the wheelchair went up,” he said.
“Regardless, whether she fell out accidentally or whether the officer dumped her out, it doesn’t look good the way the officer responded,” he said, because the officer turned and walked away.
Grishman said she was on the ground for 15 seconds, then other police officers picked her up by her wrists, dropped her for several minutes before helping her back into the wheelchair.
A longer version of Garden’s video provided to The Dispatch shows police trying to lift Grishman up by her wrists shortly after she falls, but then the camera turns away.
Garden is a member of Yes We Can Columbus. He and Grishman were among 30 to 35 protesters who went to the Huntington Plaza building at 37 W. Broad St. on Friday to protest the Republicans’ Better Care Reconciliation Act and to push U.S. Sen. Rob Portman to oppose it.
Portman’s Columbus field office is in the building. Protesters blocked entrances and three of four elevators. Police were called to clear the protesters after Columbus medics responded to the building about 3:19 p.m. on a report of someone having chest pains.
Conversations between dispatchers and firefighters that the Columbus Division of Fire provided Monday indicate medics could not find the caller.
Columbus Police Chief Kim Jacobs is reviewing Garden’s video as well as others, including from police body cameras and other footage from the building, said Robin Davis, a spokeswoman for Mayor Andrew J. Ginther.
“If there is anything that needs to be addressed, you can believe the chief of police and the mayor will address that,” Davis said.
Bruce Darling, a leader of the ADAPT group from the Rochester, New York, area., said police were screaming and were “very physical.”
“They carried me and threw me on the pavement,” Darling said.
Police spokeswoman Denise Alex-Bouzounis said officers were trying to clear the way for the paramedics. “Why block an elevator?” she said. “Why block medics from going to an emergency call?”
Connie GadellNewton, a local lawyer whom an activist called to the scene Friday, said protesters left a freight elevator unobstructed.
Police arrested a total of 16 people during the protest, all from out of state. Initially, only Brenda Dare of South Park, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh, was charged with misconduct at an emergency.
When protesters moved outside and would not clear the sidewalk area around the building, three protesters were charged with misconduct at an emergency and criminal trespass, and 12 more with criminal trespass. Grishman was among those charged with misconduct at an emergency and criminal trespass.
Protesters had been inside the lobby since Thursday, and a handful were allowed to spend the night Thursday into Friday.
When Columbus fire medics arrived at the building after the emergency call, they couldn’t find anyone to treat.