Murder charge for Ohio deputy in Casey Goodson Jr. shooting

COLUMBUS, OHIO >> The Ohio sheriff’s deputy who shot Casey Goodson Jr. in the back five times was charged with murder Thursday, as Goodson’s family also filed a federal civil rights lawsuit and the now-retired deputy publicly shared details of what happened from his perspective for the first time.

The December 2020 shooting of Goodson, who was Black, by longtime deputy Jason Meade, who is white, led to protests in Columbus and many lingering questions, in part because the killing wasn’t recorded on body or dash camera footage.

Meade’s lawyer says the deputy fired when Goodson pointed a gun at him. Goodson’s family has said he was holding a sandwich, not a gun, but noted he also had a license to carry a firearm.

The case remains under criminal investigation by the U.S. attorney’s office with help from the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

Goodson’s mother, Tamala Payne, said she was “overwhelmed with joy” at word of the indictment Thursday.

“It’s been a year of sadness, it’s been a year of grief, it’s been a year of pain,” Payne said at a late morning news conference, surrounded by several relatives. “But I know that every day of this year, that my family and I wake up and just fight for what’s right.”

The Dec. 4, 2020 shooting happened as Meade, a 17-year member of the sheriff’s office, was finishing an unsuccessful search for a fugitive as part of his work for a U.S. Marshals Service task force. Goodson was not the subject of the fugitive search and the Marshals have said Meade wasn’t performing a mission for them at the time of the shooting.