Columbus police have released body camera footage capturing the moment when an armed man pointed a gun at an officer during a foot pursuit at an apartment complex on Columbus’ Southeast Side.
The shooting happened on the evening of Sept. 19 in the 1400 block of Burstock Road at the Fairgate Apartments, a complex of mostly duplex apartment buildings near Deshler and Fairwood parks.
Columbus police officers on patrol were attempting a traffic stop on a black Volkswagen 4Motion at Burstock Road and Frebis Avenue, when the driver — a 24 year-old-man whom The Dispatch is not identifying— did not comply with officers’ instructions to pull over. The suspect’s girlfriend was also in the vehicle, body camera footage shows.
The suspect drove further on Burstock Road when he got out of the vehicle in the 1400 block of Burkstock and fled. Officers noted that they could see a gun in his hand when he got out of the vehicle. One of the officers pulled their gun on the suspect’s girlfriend, while he led another officer on a foot pursuit through the complex, body camera footage shows.
Throughout the approximately 50-second chase, the officer chasing the suspect tells him repeatedly to drop his gun. As the suspect appears to stumble in front of a duplex, he drops his gun, picks it back up, then while running appears to point it at the officer with his right hand. The officer shoots at him five times, according to the footage, striking him in his legs.
Soon after the shots, other officers arrive on scene and begin rendering aid to the suspect, applying a tourniquet to his legs until medics from the Columbus Division of Fire arrive on scene. He was transported to OhioHealth Grant Medical Center in stable, non-life-threatening condition, police said.
Police have charged the suspect with aggravated menacing, a first-degree misdemeanor, and obstructing official business, a fifth-degree felony. His girlfriend was not charged with a crime, police said.
The police shooting will be investigated by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, as is the case with most shootings involving the Columbus Division of Police.
