Authorities investigate the case as the deputy fired a black man for waving a gun, which the victim’s family said was a sandwich.
23-year-old Casey Christopher Goodson Jr was on his way home after visiting a dentist when he came across Franklin County sheriff’s deputy. The deputy was a member of the US Marshal’s Southern Ohio Fugitive Taskforce, which recently finished an unsuccessful search for a suspect.
The officer claimed he shot the gun after seeing Goodson waiving a handgun, and he refused to put it down upon order. Goodson couldn’t survive the injuries and died in the hospital bed.
The family denied the deputy’s statement and said Goodson had a license to carry the weapon, but at the time of the murder, he had a subway sandwich in his hand, not a gun. The mother wrote on Facebook that the incident took place when Goodson was coming home after visiting the dentist, and he was shot in the back three times by the cop.
Social rights activists were devastated by the incident and demanded the officials to release body cam footage as evidence. The department couldn’t provide the footage as they said the officer was not wearing a body camera, and they also confirmed that he was not the suspect they were searching for.
On Sunday, December 6, the deputy who shot Goodson was publicly named Jason Meade. Franklin County sheriff’s office said that Meade is the part of the task force for 17 years.
He has been currently stopped from performing his duties and is awaiting an interview by CIRT. The case is under the county grand jury’s consideration and is being investigated by the Columbus Division of Police Critical Incident and Response Team.
Pete Tobin, the Us Marshal for the Southern District of Ohio, conducted a press conference and said he believe that the officer had not committed a crime and the shooting was justified. Tobin said Goodson was carrying a gun while driving down the street, and Meades ordered him to drop the gun before shooting.
Goodson was rushed to Ohio Health Riverside Methodist Hospital, where he breathed his last. The weapon was recovered from the scene, but it is not confirmed that he was pointing it towards the officers or not.