Columbus shootings: Familes want investigation

The casket bearing Tyre King, the 13-year-old Ohio boy who was fatally shot by Columbus police, is delivered to his gravesite, on Saturday, September 24. Picture: John Minchillo

The casket bearing Tyre King, the 13-year-old Ohio boy who was fatally shot by Columbus police, is delivered to his gravesite, on Saturday, September 24. Picture: John Minchillo

Published Sep 28, 2016

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Columbus, Ohio - The families of two black males fatally shot by Columbus, Ohio, police pushed on Tuesday for independent investigations by federal officials into their deaths.

The police shootings of 13-year-old Tyre King on September 14 and Henry Green, 23, on June 6 in Columbus, along with similar recent incidents in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Tulsa, Oklahoma, have added to the broad debate on race relations and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement.

"Enough is enough," a sobbing Adrienne Hood, Green's mother, said during a news conference in Columbus attended by family members and friends of both victims. "There is a culture in our police department that needs to change."

The families called for both shootings to be investigated by the US Justice Department. They have said witnesses to both shootings contradict police accounts and they want the police department as well as the Franklin County Prosecutor's Office to remove themselves from any involvement in the investigations.

"What we both want is justice for both of our families," said King's grandmother, Dearrea King. "This has gone on too long and we're being ignored."

The families say they have asked city officials and the Franklin County Prosecutor's Office for independent probes and have been turned down. Attorneys for the two families said lawsuits against the city or police are not being considered at this point.

Officials with the mayor's office and the prosecutor's office could not immediately be reached to comment.

According to the Columbus Police Department, a police officer shot King multiple times after the boy pulled what appeared to be a handgun from his waistband during an encounter following a report of an armed robbery.

It was later determined King had an air pistol that fires BBs - small metal pellets, not bullets. Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther said the BB gun looked almost identical to the 9mm Glock semi-automatic handguns carried by city police.

A forensic report prepared by a medical examiner hired by the family said the teenager was shot while running away. The Franklin County Coroner's Office has said a determination on the cause and manner of King's death was pending.

Green was fatally shot by two plainclothes Columbus police officers who saw him with a gun on the street, the Columbus Dispatch reported. He allegedly fired at them but family and friends said the officers did not identify themselves. The newspaper cited police saying the officers had shown their badges.

Green's family also said he was licensed to carry a gun.

Reuters

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