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On Friday the 4th of December, Casey Goodson was shot and killed in Columbus, USA.
He is said to have been shot multiple times in the torso by Jason Meade, Franklin County Sheriff's Deputy, before being admitted to Ohio Health Riverside Methodist hospital, where he died. The shooting reportedly occurred after police had finished unsuccessfully searching for another separate offender. Goodson's family claim he was innocent, while the police force claim the shooting was justified.
At a news conference, Peter Tobin, US Marshal for the Southern District of Ohio, stated that a "fugitive task force that included marshals and Franklin County Sheriff's SWAT members had just finished an unsuccessful search for a suspect on early Friday afternoon." A man then “drove by waving a handgun" at a sheriff's SWAT deputy. Subsequently, Meade is said to have confronted Goodson about waving the handgun as he had stepped outside of his car into his home. As Goodson reportedly refused to drop the handgun when asked to do so, Meade shot him. It is because of this that Tobin believes the shooting was justified.
Meade has served in the marines, was a deputy with the FCSO for 17 years, and was a member of the SWAT team. He was also deployed to Iraq during the conflict in 2005, and has worked as a pastor at Rosedale Free Will Baptist Church in the past.
Goodson's family tell a very different story. Rather than carrying a gun, they claim he had been carrying a sandwich as he was arriving home, having taken his grandmother to a dental appointment. They allege it was just as his keys were in the front door that he was shot. Goodson was an employee at clothing store GAP, and "he just enjoyed being a big brother and enjoyed being with his family", according to family friend Heather Johnson. She says he "had never had any type of crimes."
The family claim they weren't given any updates on Goodson's condition, even as he was taken to the hospital, while they were treated like criminals by police. The family’s attorney recalls how, even in the hours after Goodson was killed, the house key remained hung up on the door handle: a stark reminder of how close he was to safety.
Goodson isn’t the only young Black man to have been shot dead by police in the state of Ohio. Tamir Rice was only 12 when he was shot and killed for carrying a toy gun in 2014, 13-year-old Tyre King was shot and killed for carrying a BB gun in 2016, and 23-year-old Henry Green was shot dead by plainclothes officers after they reportedly saw him carrying a gun that same year. Ohio is an open-carry state.
Goodson had been a "vocal supporter of civil rights, freedom and justice for all", according to family attorney Sean Walton. He also believes it is important that Goodson's name is remembered and his legacy is continued, in spite of his short life.
The incident follows on from the fatal police encounters of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Andres Guardado, Dijon Kizzee, Daniel Prude, and Steven Taylor - amongst others which have happened this year. The Black Lives Matter movement has played a particularly notable role in drawing public attention to these deaths, which many activists believe are the result of institutional racism.
Columbus police Critical Incident Response Team (CIRT) will conduct an investigation that will be reviewed by the Franklin County prosecutor’s office. The US Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio and the FBI are launching concurrent federal civil rights investigations into the incident. The focus of the federal investigation will be on whether or not Goodson’s civil rights were violated during the events that led to his death.
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