Police have identified the man shot by Dayton police in downtown March 24 as Reginald Thomas.
The shooting will be investigated separately by Dayton and Montgomery County law enforcement. A local group that advocates against police violence has spoken out, saying they are "enraged."
At a news conference where body cam footage was also played, Dayton Police Chief Kamran Afzal said the officer was on a routine patrol and stopped Thomas on his bike around 9:30 p.m. This was around North St. Clair and East Third streets.
The body cam recording shows the officer telling the man he was stopped because he didn't have a light on his bike and was riding on the sidewalk. Thomas said he was on the sidewalk because there wasn't a bike lane, and that he had a reflector on his bike.
Thomas tells the officer he wasn't armed. The officer asks to pat him down. Thomas then starts running away.
Ohio law allows people to carry a concealed weapon but also requires people to tell police that when asked.
Afzal said Thomas took out his gun when being chased.
The police officer and Thomas struggled multiple times throughout the encounter.
During a struggle, Afzal said Thomas seems to go toward the dropped handgun. The officer fired one shot. Thomas was taken to a hospital and died from his injuries.
Afzal played body cam footage and showed still images from the encounter, but didn’t play the actual shooting.
"I'm not going to show the actual shooting on that. There's enough trauma that occurs in our community and we are not going contribute to that. This is a traumatic situation as it is for everybody involved, including our officers," he said.
Investigation and reaction
The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office is handling the investigation. The officer wasn’t named. Dayton Police Professional Standards Bureau will conduct a separate administrative investigation.
The group Ohio Families Unite Against Police Brutality released a statement on the shooting. The group was founded by Sabrina Jordan after her son was shot by Moraine police in 2017.
A statement says they are "heartbroken and enraged about losing another person at the hands of so-called peace officers, and as always, we keep hearing the same old narrative."
