Protesters dispute CPD account of breach
Flanked by a sign reading “Columbus is not safe for Black people,” organizers who spoke before a crowd Wednesday night outside the Ohio Statehouse disputed the police narrative of a peaceful demonstration the previous night that took a violent turn.
Columbus police and protesters agree on the basic details of what transpired after Tuesday night outside the division’s headquarters that culminated with officers dispersing a crowd with mace. That is: that some protesters entered the west-facing, first-floor doors to the building at 9:23 p.m., and police officers met them and told them to go back outside.
But that’s about where the agreement ended.
An organizer who goes by “Storm” read from a prepared statement around 7:45 p.m. Wednesday before a crowd of about 100. In that statement, Storm said that after more than 100 demonstrators peacefully marched Tuesday night through Downtown Columbus, a smaller group had planned a silent sit-in inside police headquarters on Marconi Boulevard at West Long Street.
The group planned to sit inside headquarters in silence for nine minutes and 29 seconds, “symbolizing the near 10 minutes in which George Floyd was murdered by the police” in Minneapolis, Storm said. But when they went to open the doors, they discovered they had been locked from inside with handcuffs.
As some of the organizers regrouped and discussed what to do, Storm said, one protester continued to pull on the doors until handcuffs police used to secure the door from inside broke loose.
Hunter Mattin, 20, an Ohio State University student from Wauseon in northwest Ohio, has been charged with aggravated burglary. He is accused of entering the building and striking a Columbus police sergeant in the face with a wooden club, causing injury.
Protesters also decried that they were barred entry to a public building.
Hours earlier, Columbus police provided their own account of the clash, as well as the events leading to it.
Deputy Chief Greg Bodker said events began to turn from a peaceful protest around 9 p.m. when a group of protesters, who had been marching and protesting for several hours without incident, returned to police headquarters.
Bodker said at 9:23 p.m. Tuesday, a group of protesters forced their way into headquarters through a set of double doors that had been secured on the interior with handcuffs.
Bodker said officers that were in the building asked them to leave. At least four protesters, however, began to yell at officers in a vestibule area between two sets of doors.
One of those protesters was Mattin, who was captured on body camera video holding a wooden club that was approximately three feet long, Bodker said.
Body camera footage released Wednesday by police showed Sgt. Justin Coleman, the son of former mayor Michael Coleman, asking the protesters to leave and his head jerking backward after being struck in the face with the club.
Coleman and other officers pursued Mattin outside. Bodker said officers used “bursts of mace” to separate a crowd of people and take Mattin into custody.
Bodker said Coleman was later treated and released at an area hospital for injuries to his face.
“We, as a city, cannot tolerate officers being assaulted by violent protesters. Forcing open the doors and coming in with three-foot clubs is not how to have that conversation.” Greg Bodker Deputy Chief
Bodker said prior to when the protesters returned to headquarters from the march around Downtown, Tuesday night’s protests were mostly peaceful in nature.
Police are conducting an administrative investigation into the use of mace during the arrest, as is division policy, Bodker said. There is also an ongoing investigation into the other protesters who were involved in forcing their way into headquarters with the potential for additional criminal charges.
Bodker said deputy chiefs and Chief Michael Woods are happy to have conversations
with protesters.
“We, as a city, cannot tolerate officers being assaulted by violent protesters,” Bodker said. “Forcing open the doors and coming in with three-foot clubs is not how to have that conversation.”
If Tuesday’s largely peaceful protest crescendoed into a violent end, Wednesday’s demonstration was notably calm from beginning to end.
It marked the third straight night of demonstrations after the police killing of 27-year-old Miles Jackson on Monday afternoon during an exchange of gunfire inside the emergency department of Mount Carmel St. Ann’s medical center in Westerville.
After challenging what police said about the previous night’s clash at police headquarters, organizers presented a list of demands for city leaders, including the release of Mattin from jail, resignations or firings of prominent law enforcement leaders, including Franklin County Sheriff Dallas Baldwin, and the arrest on criminal charges of Franklin County Sheriff ’s SWAT deputy Jason Meade for the death of 23-year-old Casey Goodson Jr. in December.
The crowd then began marching through the streets of Downtown Columbus holding signs and chanting before a nearly 10-minute “sit-in” outside of the police building. Police could be seen watching from inside.
The group then marched back to the Statehouse, where Hana Abdur-rahim, a South Side organizer and activist, informed the crowd on a megaphone that the demonstration had come to an end. bbruner@dispatch.com @bethany_bruner elagatta@dispatch.com @Ericlagatta