More than 30 people showed up at a last-minute Saturday night vigil in front of the Ohio Statehouse to honor the killing of Casey Christopher Goodson Jr., a 23-year-old Black man who was fatally shot by a SWAT deputy officer in Columbus, Ohio, on Friday afternoon.
According to family members, Goodson was at the side door of their home, having just come back from a dentist appointment and carrying a Subway sandwich, when he was shot three times in the back by Jason Meade, a Franklin County sheriff’s SWAT deputy assigned to the US marshal’s office fugitive task force.
Law enforcement officers, however, tell a different story. They say Goodson drove by and waved a handgun at Meade. The officer then confronted Goodson, who was out of the car by then, and demanded that he drop the gun. When Goodson allegedly refused, the sheriff’s SWAT deputy shot him, according to the Columbus Division of Police.
“They are lying,” Kaylee Harper, Goodson’s sister, wrote in a Facebook post about the department’s claims. “My brother literally walked across the yard, walked into the back fence to get to the side door, had his Subway [sandwich] and [face] mask in one hand, keys in the other, unlocked and opened the door and stepped in the house before shooting him.”
Meade, a 17-year veteran, is currently not on duty; as of Sunday, he was waiting to be interviewed by the Columbus Division of Police Critical Incident and Response Team, which is leading the investigation.
The shooting comes during a monumental year of nationwide protests against systemic racism and police violence in the wake of the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. Protests calling for justice in Goodman’s killing are planned on Saturday, December 12
“Our demand is that the authorities provide the family with answers for Casey’s death and that the officer involved be held accountable,” the family’s attorney, Sean Walton, said in a press release. “The family and the community demand swift justice for Casey Goodson.”
What we know about the police killing of Casey Christopher Goodson Jr.
As Goodson unlocked the door to his house on Friday afternoon, his 72-year-old grandmother and two toddlers — who were inside the house, near the door at the time — witnessed the shooting happen, according to the family’s attorneys.
But at a press conference on Friday after the incident, Peter Tobin, the US marshal for the Southern District of Ohio — without mentioning Goodson’s name — told a different story. (Goodson’s identity was not publicly confirmed until Sunday, more than 48 hours after his fatal shooting.) The fugitive task force had just wrapped up an unsuccessful search for a suspect that afternoon on Estates Place, where officers claim they saw Goodson drive by and wave a handgun at the sheriff’s SWAT deputy, Tobin said. While Goodson was not the task force’s target, he was the one who ended up shot, and was transported to the Ohio Health Riverside Methodist Hospital, where he later died.
The attorneys say the family does not believe Goodson would ever wave a handgun at officers. “Casey was 23 years old, he never had any type of crimes. He was good, he worked at the Gap, he loved his family,” family friend Heather Johnson told the Columbus Dispatch. “He just enjoyed being a big brother and enjoyed being with his family, he loved them very much.”
Tobin said a handgun was later recovered, but did not say from where. Authorities, however, did not mention that Goodson, who family lawyers said did not have a criminal background, appears to have been licensed to carry a concealed weapon. (Ohio does not prohibit the open carry of firearms).
Before the sheriff’s office even announced that the Columbus Division of Police Critical Incident and Response Team will conduct a “thorough and transparent investigation” of the shooting, Tobin had already called the shooting “justified.”
“It is troubling that authorities have already stated that they believe the shooting to be justified, prior to any investigation taking place and before any information has been released to the family,” Walton said in the press release. “At this point, witness testimony and physical evidence raise serious concerns about why Casey was even confronted, let alone why he was shot dead while entering his own home.”
Harper launched a GoFundMe online fundraiser for her brother’s funeral costs, which has already exceeded its $9,000 goal. Activists have followed with a list of demands for law enforcement: release body camera footage, show the police reports, allow for an independent autopsy report as well as an independent prosecutor investigation. A spokesperson for the sheriff’s office said they did not have body cameras, though the sheriff’s vehicles do have dash-mounted cameras; an autopsy will also be performed this week. Authorities have not offered any further details of their investigation.
“This is not an isolated incident. These are incidents where the police abuse their power and decide they are the judge, jury, and executioner,” an organizer with People’s Justice Project said during Saturday night’s vigil. “We’ve had time to rest and recuperate, and now we have to be out in the streets to support [Goodson’s] family, and tell the true narrative of what happened.”
SOURCE: VOX
