A Columbus police officer is recovering after being shot Wednesday evening.
The shooting happened on East 16th Avenue in the Linden neighborhood, not far from the state fairgrounds.
Columbus police said officers attempted a traffic stop in the area of Hamilton and Minnesota avenues. The driver failed to stop and drove away.
A short time later, officers found the car behind a home on E. 18th Avenue. Moments later, they spotted the suspect walking in the area of Hamilton and E. 16th avenues.
"The information I have is that once the suspect was located, the officers approached and that particular suspect opened fire on officers," Columbus Division of Police Chief Elaine Bryant said Wednesday evening.
"I am extremely, very saddened by this incident and I'm mad. I'm mad because our officers go out there every single day to serve and protect and this incident is a reminder of the dangers that officers face every single day."Chief Elaine Bryant, Columbus Division of Police
Bryant said the officers fired back, hitting the suspect, who later died at the hospital.
Brian Steel, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Capital City Lodge 9, said Thursday morning that the officer was hit twice — once in each leg — with one bullet severing his femoral artery. Still, Steel said, the injured officer was able to fire back at the suspect.
Several other officers on scene also shot at the suspect.
Steel said the injured officer underwent several hours of surgery. Steel visited him at the hospital.
"He was as white as a ghost and as cold as I ever felt. That hits home. I put my hands on his cheek. I said, 'Brother, hang in there. We got you,'" Steel said.
The officer is expected to recover.
Steel said he may not be identified due to Marsy's Law, which protects victims of crimes, but said the officer had been policing the Linden area for two to three years.
Other police officers who were present at the time of the shooting put the injured officer in a police cruiser and drove him to the hospital themselves instead of waiting for an ambulance.
"They took one look at him. They saw the mass of blood loss. They said every second counts. We're gonna carry him in," Steel said. "They absolutely saved his life."
Steel said officers also provided medical care to the suspect until other emergency responders arrived. He celebrated the city's effort to teach new officers how to render aid to those who are injured.
"This is the reality of policing. These are the threats our officers make. They make split-second decisions in life or death."- Brian Steel, Columbus FOP president
The suspect and officer both were treated at Grant Medical Center. Typically, that wouldn't happen. Steel said there was a "miscommunication" and that the police and fire departments could learn from the mistake. He said that to his knowledge, the officer's and suspect's families did not run into one another at the hospital.
Steel spoke to the press from a courtroom in the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas, where the retrial of former Franklin County Sheriff's Deputy Jason Meade continued upstairs.
Meade faces a murder charge for killing 23-year-old Casey Goodson Jr. in December 2020 as Goodson was entering a family home in North Linden. Meade claims that Goodson began to turn toward him with a gun in his hand before Meade shot him six times in the back. Prosecutors argue that Goodson's gun, which he carried legally, was in its holster at the time.
Steel drew parallels between Wednesday night's shooting and Meade's case.
"If someone points a gun at the police, the outcome is not on the officer, it's on the individual brandished gun," Steel said.
In a statement Thursday, Mayor Andrew Ginther said: "The violence against our Columbus Police officers last night in Linden was completely and totally unacceptable. My prayers are with the injured officer for a full recovery, and also with his family and with the officers of CPD."
The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation has taken over the investigation of Wednesday's shooting.
Columbus police have not released any additional information on the other officers involved or the name of the suspect who died.
