Police mum on whether 10 injured were shot by officers
Bodycam footage shows response in Short North
More than 72 hours after a chaotic shooting spree in Columbus’ Short North, the city Division of Police had not yet said whether any of the 10 people shot were hit by police gunfire.
During a Monday news conference at Division of Police headquarters Downtown, Chief Elaine Bryant called the early Saturday morning shooting in the Short North “an explosion of gunfire.” Some of the 10 known shooting victims, who range in age from 18 to 27, drove themselves to hospitals, she said.
Details from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, which is leading the investigation as a matter of city policy in all shootings involving Columbus police in which a person is injured or killed, are not being shared publicly. That includes the style, ownership and legal status of 11 guns found at the crime scene.
Two separate incidents, apparently unrelated, in the Short North were separated by about seven minutes and several blocks.
Bryant said that officers had gone to the 600 block of North High Street around 2:30 a.m. Saturday after getting a report of a shooting. While the officers were on the scene, more gunshots were heard a few blocks north.
One of two Columbus police bodycam videos released Monday shows Columbus police officers Carl Harmon, a member of the Division of Police for eight years, and Jacob Velas, who has over six years with the division, walking up North High Street toward a group of people where an argument is going on and one woman is pulling another woman’s hair.
The officers, who were on assignment in the Short North checking food trucks in the area at the time, began efforts to break up the argument in front of a United Dairy Farmers store at 847 N. High St.
The problem appeared to center
around a woman who was screaming wildly and pushing others who attempted to restrain her. At one point she yelled “I’m not fighting” while flailing her arms and falling to the pavement.
A few moments after, gunfire erupted, prompting a city-wide emergency with officers responding from other Columbus precincts. Officers Harmon and Velas “immediately ran toward the gunfire and ran toward the subject.” Bryant said.
A bodycam shows officers firing as they moved toward a gunman down in front of Roaming Goat Coffee at 849 N. High St. The video shows one of the officers kicking a handgun away from the man, who is bleeding heavily. The 20year-old man was handcuffed and transported to Ohio State Wexner Medical Center in critical condition.
A third officer, Ian Mansperger, a twoyear division veteran, also fired his weapon during the shooting. Mansperger was working special duty in the Short North and, in accordance with Division policy, was not wearing a body camera.
Police have not said whether any of those injured were struck by police gunfire.
However, Ohio BCI was leading the investigation.
The shootings in the Short North, in one of the most popular social hubs of Columbus, sent bullets into buildings and ricocheting elsewhere. Several bystanders were seen running for safety as officers told them to get down. Some
people were crouching or hiding beside buildings for safety. The aftermath closed down much of the Short North for hours.
Columbus Mayor Andrew J. Ginther thanked police who under pressure showed compassion for the victims. He called the incident and three other shootings Friday and Saturday “truly horrific.”
There were two other shootings early Saturday that were fatal, one in Linden that police say was a domestic violence case, and one behind a home on East Whittier Street in the South Side.
City officials have cited a surge in domestic violence deaths, accounting for 20% of all homicides so far this year.
Ginther said that state and federal lawmakers need “to step up and help us get illegal crime guns off our streets.”
“We have a simple request,” Ginther said. “Get out of our way. Let us lead at the local level to enact basic, common sense gun legislration. We know what we need to do. We have done it before.”
Background checks, red flag laws, banning of bump stocks and assaultstyle weapons were among solutions that have been proposed in Columbus, but rejected by many state and federal lawmakers.
Asked if he felt safe in Columbus, Ginther said that he and his wife had dinner Saturday night in the Short North.
“The Short North is safe,” he said. “But every neighborhood could be safer.” dnarciso@dispatch.com @Deannarciso bbruner@dispatch.com @bethany_bruner