A trio of Columbus, Ohio, police officers was slapped with criminal charges over their response to last summer’s protests and riots that followed the death of George Floyd.
All three law enforcement personnel have been charged with dereliction of duty, while two face additional offenses of assault and interfering with civil rights, special prosecutor Kathleen Garber, who helms the city’s effort to investigate complaints against officers, announced on Wednesday. All of the charges are misdemeanors.
“I was asked by the City of Columbus to independently evaluate the allegations of police misconduct from last summer’s protests so that both citizens and police officers are held to the same standard of accountability,” Garber said in a statement obtained by the Washington Examiner. “We appreciate the community’s patience over the past year while we have made continued attempts to interview witnessing officers and identify officers committing the alleged misconduct during the protests.”
JUDGE RESTRICTS COLUMBUS POLICE’S USE OF FORCE ON NONVIOLENT PROTESTERS
Columbus police identified those charged as Officer Traci M. Shaw, Sergeant Holly Kanode, and Officer Phillip Walls. They have since been relieved “of their regular assignment and authority to take police action” and have been placed on administrative leave, the department said in a statement.
An internal investigation will commence once the criminal proceedings have ended.
The string of charges follows an early May ruling from federal Judge Algenon Marbley that barred officers within the department from employing force — including tear gas, pepper spray, and rubber bullets — against nonviolent protesters and said law enforcement ran “amok” during summer protests. Marbley sided with a group of 26 protesters who filed a class-action lawsuit against the law enforcement body alleging mistreatment.
The judge wrote: “Unfortunately, some of the members of the Columbus Police Department had no regard for the rights secured by this bedrock principle of American democracy,” adding that Columbus police used force “indiscriminately” and without provocation between May and June.
The lawsuit also accused the Columbus Police Department of collective punishment. In one instance, police responded to a single protester who threw a water bottle by indiscriminately pepper-spraying or tear-gassing an entire group. The judge added that police sometimes failed to give audible or adequate time to disperse before resorting to nonlethal force.
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“In other words, there was no time for protesters to react,” Marbley said.
Days prior to the ruling, Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther, a Democrat, requested a Justice Department investigation into the city’s police department following a string of police killings of black people, including the shooting death of Ma’Khia Bryant, a 16-year-old. Bryant was seen on video lunging at another female with a knife before she was fatally shot by an officer.
