Columbus police release bodycam videos showing police responding to Short North gunfire
By: More than 48 hours after a chaotic shooting spree in Columbus' Short North, the city Division of Police has not yet said whether any of the 10 people shot were hit by police gunfire.
During a Monday news conference at Division of Police headquarters Downtown, Chief Elaine Bryant called the early Saturday morning shooting in the Short North "an explosion of gunfire." Some of the 10 known shooting victims, who range in age from 18 to 27, drove themselves to hospitals, she said.
Details from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, which is leading the investigation as a matter of city policy in all shootings involving Columbus police in which a person is injured or killed, are not being shared publicly. That includes the style, ownership and legal status of 11 guns found at the crime scene.
Two separate incidents, apparently unrelated, in the Short North were separated about seven minutes and several blocks.
Bryant said that officers had gone to the 600 block of North High Street around 2:30 a.m. Saturday after getting a report of a shooting. While the officers were on the scene, more gunshots were heard a few blocks north.
One of two Columbus police bodycam videos released Monday show Columbus police officers Carl Harmon, a member of the Division of Police for 5 years, and Jacob Velas, who has 6½ years with the division, walking up North High Street toward a group of people where an argument is going on and one woman is pulling another woman's hair.
The officers, who were on assignment in the Short North checking food trucks in the area at the time, began efforts to break up the argument in front of a United Dairy Farmers store at 847 N. High St..
The problem appeared to center around a woman who was screaming wildly and pushing others who attempted to restrain her. At one point, she yelled "I'm not fighting" while flailing her arms and falling to the pavement.
A few moments after, gunfire erupted, prompting a city-wide emergency with officers responded from other Columbus precincts.
Officers Harmon and Velas "immediately ran toward the gunfire and ran toward the subject." Bryant said.
A bodycam shows officers moving toward a gunman down in front of Roaming Goat Coffee at 849 N. High St. The video shows one of the officers kicking a handgun away from the man, who is bleeding heavily. The 20-year-old man was handcuffed and transported to Ohio State Wexner Medical Center in critical condition.
Police have not said whether any of those injured were struck by police gunfire. However, Ohio BCI was leading the investigation.