Columbus police address third fatal shooting involving officers within a week
For the third time in less than a week, an armed man died during an incident early Thursday morning that led to gunfire from Columbus police officers on the Southeast Side.
At a media briefing Friday afternoon, Columbus police chief Elaine Bryant played a recording of a 911 call around 4 a.m. Thursday from a female saying that her uncle, now identified as 21-year-old Rafael Warfield, was threatening to harm himself and the people around him, that he was behaving erratically, and that he had a firearm.
Four Columbus police officers arrived on scene at 4:07 a.m. at the apartment in the 6800 block of Georges Creek Drive off Gender Road on the Southeast Side.
Body camera footage shown by Columbus police at the Friday press conference shows the officer wearing it with a rifle taking cover behind a vehicle as two other officers walk up to the residence in an attempt to coax Warfield out of the apartment. At some point, Warfield fires at least one shot — but it is not clear from the video if Warfield is firing at the officers or himself. The video shows the officer with the rifle reacting, shooting between eight and 10 times.
When asked who Warfield was shooting at, Bryant deferred the answer to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, who will be handling the investigation into the shooting, as is the case with any law enforcement officer-involved shooting in the city of Columbus.
Of the four officers who responded to the scene, Bryant said that one has a total of five years with the Columbus Division of Police, while the other three have between one and two years with the department.
Jennifer Watson, Columbus police public information officer, said the department plans release the body camera footage by tomorrow morning.
Columbus police retracted original statement on Warfield's death
Columbus Division of Police initially stated in a press release issued about 7:30 a.m. Thursday that Warfield had died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. However, Brian Steel, president of Fraternal Order of Police Capitol City Lodge No. 9, which represents Columbus police and other law enforcement officers in Frankly County, said he visited the scene Thursday morning and officers told him a man who appeared intoxicated and was threatening to harm others fired at least one round at officers.
At 11 a.m., the police division issued a second release retracting its original statement that Warfield had shot himself and said what happened would be determined by Ohio BCI.
Explaining the snafu, Bryant told reporters Friday that the initial report was sent in haste to get the information out to the media, and that the department issued a retraction when they realized their mistake.
Columbus police grapple with third fatal police shooting within a week
The past week has been a turbulent one for Columbus police.
On May 11, Columbus police officers responding to a domestic violence call and shots fired at 7:08 p.m. in the 4700 block of McAllister Avenue — located just off Shady Lane Road, one block south of East Main Street on the East Side — immediately came under fire from a man with a rifle. Bodycam footage from the incident shows the officers taking cover behind vehicles in a driveway and returning fire.
After running across the street to another house, officers returned to the original location with their guns drawn. One of the residents at the home told officers that the man firing at them had been shot by police. Bodycam footage shows the man, later identified as Corey Roach, 50, suffering from multiple gunshot wounds.
Officers rendered aid until medics arrived and transported Roach to Mount Carmel East Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead at 7:50 p.m., police said.
As officers were securing the shooting scene, residents told officers about a woman who shared a residence with Roadh on the 1000 block of Lockwood Road. Officers found the woman, later identified as 45-year-old Nicole Pleasant, had been shot multiple times by the suspect before police arrived on scene. Pleasant was pronounced dead at 7:18 p.m. by medics.
No Columbus police officers were injured in the shooting.
Bryant told reporters that multiple weapons were discovered, but citing the pending BCI investigation, could not offer details such as what kind of weapons, how many, or where they were found.
The next day, May 12, Ali Hamsa Yusuf, 22, was fatally shot by law enforcement after he shot a Columbus police officer during a confrontation with law enforcement at Georgesville and Clime North roads on Columbus' West Side. Around 4:20 p.m. that day, Yusuf, a contract security guard trainee at an Amazon warehouse facility in West Jefferson, shot twice at close range at his supervisor and missed. After the botched shooting, Yusuf fled the scene in his vehicle.
Law enforcement officers from Franklin Township, Columbus police and undercover Madison County Sheriff's deputies later surrounded Yusuf's vehicle at the intersection. He got out of the vehicle and fired at the Columbus police officer behind him, striking him in his bulletproof vest.
@ShahidMeighan
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Rafale Warfield fired a shot, then Columbus police shot at him.
