Downtown rioter gets 8 years for shooting fireworks at Columbus officers
A rioter who fired commercial-grade fireworks into a group of Columbus police officers during a racial-injustice protest Downtown last year was sentenced Tuesday afternoon to at least eight years in prison.
Brandon L. Pack, 26, of the South Side pleaded guilty in September to three counts of felonious assault and one count each of aggravated rioting, vandalism and breaking and entering.
The sentence, the most serious penalty given to anyone charged with criminal behavior during a spring and summer of protests, was imposed by Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Kimberly Cocroft.
Pack was among hundreds of people who converged Downtown on the night of May 28, 2020, primarily around Broad and High streets, to protest the murder of George Floyd Jr. three days earlier at the hands of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.
The gathering was largely peaceful until late into the night and early the following morning, when some in the crowd began throwing objects at police officers, damaging street-front businesses and looting.
Pack was accused of engaging in about 45 minutes of violent behavior, including firing three mortar rounds of commercial-grade fireworks at officers. Numerous officers suffered injuries, including hearing loss and burns, according to Assistant Franklin County Prosecutors Jason Manning and Steve Schott.
Pack also hurled rocks and bricks at
officers, they said.
The three felonious assault charges that Pack pleaded guilty to involved the most serious of the injuries, suffered by three officers. One had his foot broken by a rock thrown by Pack and two were struck by exploding fireworks.
Some of the officers in the path of the fireworks thought they had been shot, Manning said.
Pack also pleaded guilty to charges that he used a rock to smash a window at the Heartland Bank in the 100 block of South High Street and entered the neighboring CVS pharmacy, following other looters who had broken into the store.
A warrant was issued for his arrest in December 2020 after a lengthy investigation, including review of surveillance video.
A co-defendant in the case, Romell W. Whiteside Jr., is awaiting a December court date.
Whiteside, 20, of the West Side, is charged with aggravated riot, aggravated arson and vandalism. Among the allegations is that he tried to help Pack light the fireworks.
Under the Reagan Tokes Act, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation can keep Pack incarcerated for up to a year and a half beyond his sentence based on his behavior in prison.