Panel clears Columbus police officer in shooting

A panel that reviews deadly use of force has cleared a Columbus police officer in a 2015 shooting that wounded a suicidal man on the city’s South Side.

Officer Jared Barsotti shot Jack Jolley, 47, in the hip after a Taser proved ineffective. Jolley suffered non-lifethreatening injuries.

Barsotti and another officer attempted to subdue Jolley first, police said. The other officer discharged a Taser, but it didn’t work properly. Jolley, who was holding a knife, ignored officers’ commands to drop the weapon.

Barsotti then fired several shots as Jolley advanced. He had called officers to come to his house on Harland Drive, telling them he didn’t want to live.

Barsotti, 32, has worked as an officer for the Columbus Division of Police for four years. He was involved in another shooting five months later outside a North Side nightclub when he fired several shots at a vehicle as an officer was getting dragged a short distance.

In that case, no one was struck by the bullets. The driver was arrested shortly afterward.

Both the officer and the driver suffered minor injuries. The officers had been at the nightclub working a special-duty job to provide extra security. The Firearms Review Board has not ruled on that case.

The board reviews all cases where there are intentional uses of deadly force, including any time an officer shoots at someone.