Body cam shows Columbus police officer in a shootout after an ambush attack
By: The Columbus Division of Police released body camera video on Monday showing a suspect and an officer exchanging gunfire over the weekend.
Columbus police said officers were called to the 600 block of Kingsford Road in the Hilltop neighborhood early Saturday morning for a report of shots fired.
Body camera footage from officer Payne Vantilburg shows him stepping out of the passenger side of a cruiser and speaking with a man, later identified as Lamar Blue.
When another officer asked Blue to take his hand out of his pocket, police say Blue pulled a shotgun out from behind his body and fired it toward the officers.
Vantilburg returned fire and struck Blue, who ran away.
Officers found Blue nearby and gave him medical attention before he was taken to Grant Medical Center.
Only 13 seconds had passed when officers first stopped out of their vehicle and when they were fired upon.
"I believe the quick action of the officer that fired shots saved both those officers' lives," said Police Chief Elaine Bryant in a press conference on Monday.
Bryant also noted this was the second time in less than two weeks that Columbus officers have been shot at.
"Our officers are making contact with residents, with citizens, with people that are armed and they just never know just what kind of situation they are walking into," Bryant said. "They had no idea they were going to encounter someone that was going to pull a shotgun, a deadly weapon, on them, in the blink of an eye."
Neither officer was injured in the incident.
Blue was charged with two counts of felonious assault.
The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation is handling the investigation.