City to help fund truck driver training program named for slain Casey Goodson Jr.

Columbus City Council members announced Thursday that they would honor Casey Goodson Jr., the 23-year-old truck driver shot and killed by a Franklin County Sheriff's SWAT deputy last December, by naming a publicly funded commercial driver's license training program after him.

Council Member Shayla Favor and Council President Shannon Hardin announced the city would contribute $200,000 toward "Pathways to Purpose: Casey Goodson Jr. CDL Program."

"Goodson's life mattered," Favor said at the event at the IMPACT Community Action headquarters on the South Side. "He had an incredibly bright future ahead of him as a truck driver," noting there is a nationwide shortage of truck drivers that has been linked to supply-chain shortages causing some items to be missing from store shelves.

The new program aims to provide individuals with commercial driver’s license training and other skills to help create a stable living environment through employment.

Part of the city funding will be used to cover the costs of tuition for dozens of participants receiving training through Roads2Work, IMPACT's CDL training program.

“All our young people deserve an opportunity to get the skills and credentials necessary for a good-paying job,” Hardin said in a written statement. “This new program is another great option for folks in Columbus looking for a career to support their family.”

Goodson was fatally shot in December 2020 outside his family home by then-Franklin County Sheriff's SWAT deputy Jason Meade. Meade, 42, a 17-year veteran, left the sheriff's office on disability retirement effective July 2.

Meade said Goodson waved a gun at him after the deputy had been working as part of an unsuccessful federal fugitive task force search for a suspect nearby, so the deputy followed him to his residence on the 3900 block of Estates Place in the Northland area.

Goodson's family has said Goodson had a concealed carry permit for his gun and he was carrying sandwiches while unlocking a screen door to enter the home at the time he was shot.

The Franklin County Coroner's office report said that Goodson was shot six times in the torso, five of which were to his back.

There was no bodycam video of the shooting because Franklin County Sheriff's deputies do not have them.

The Dispatch reported that Goodson had shared photos of his truck-driving trips with a former middle school teacher, including one snapped the day he graduated from the truck-driving school in July 2019. Others he took during the months he traveled across country as a driver for Walmart, sending the former teacher pictures of mountains and sunsets that he said were too amazing not to share.

He told her in one message that he had seen probably 44 states before he gave up the over-the-road job in spring 2020 to help out with family at home.

Franklin County Prosecutor Gary Tyack hired Tim Merkle and Gary Shroyer as special prosecutors to assist with investigating and prosecuting the fatal shooting. The U.S. Department of Justice is also investigating the shooting for any potential violations of federal civil rights laws.

wbush@gannett.com

@ReporterBush

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Casey Goodson honored with truck-driving program bearing his name