Mother says Casey Goodson had dreams that were pulled out when he was shot and killed by a police officer

“Her body fell in the house with the sandwiches, with the bullet holes …” her mother said. “If my son had received an order, he would have listened.

Payne and family lawyer Sean Walton described Goodson as law-abiding and peaceful.

“Casey was a person who did everything right, and what happened that day that prompted the MP to take the life of a black man on his way home?” Walton asked.

Violent Offender Task Force, not Goodson

Goodson, who holds a concealed transport permit in Ohio, was legally armed at the time of the shooting, according to the Columbus Police Division. Goodson has not been charged with committing a crime, has no criminal history and has not been investigated, Walton told CNN.

Meade was working for the Marshal’s Fugitives Task Force Searching Violent Offenders at the time, but Goodson was not the person the task force was looking for, Columbus Police said.

During the U.S. Marshal’s Task Force operation in Columbus, Meade reported seeing a man with a gun and was investigating the situation when there was a verbal exchange prior to the shooting, the division said. Columbus Police Station.

Police say no other officers witnessed the shooting, no civilian eyewitnesses have been identified and there is no body camera of the actual shooting because officers from the Sheriff’s Task Force of the Franklin County do not have body cameras.

CNN has contacted the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office for comment, but has yet to receive a response.

Federal and local authorities are investigating

Although the shooting did not involve a Columbus police officer, the Columbus Police Critical Incident Response Team is the primary agency investigating the shooting because it occurred in Columbus.

In addition, the U.S. District Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio and the FBI are launching a federal civil rights investigation.

“This offers the highest level of transparency and a clear path to the truth,” said Columbus Police Chief Thomas Quinlan.

Columbus police tried on Monday to turn the investigation over to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI), the state agency that typically investigates shootings involving police. But the BCI said it would not be able to accept the case due to an unexplained delay in the request.

“We received a recommendation to take over a three day old officer shooting case. Not knowing all the reasons why so long passed before the case was referred to the BCI, we cannot accept this case, ”The attorney general’s office said.

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said the BCI has a memorandum of understanding with Columbus Police that says the state agency should be the first call after a police shootout.

“BCI is the first call because we can’t be the subject matter experts unless we are there from the start to document the evidence of what has happened from the start,” Yost said in a statement. Monday. “Three days later, after the crime scene has been dismantled and the witness (s) have all dispersed, it doesn’t work.”

Columbus Police said Chief Quinlan’s interest in BCI being involved in the case was “based solely on reassuring the public of maximum independence in the investigation of this tragedy.” The ministry added that the attorney general’s decision not to take the case had not interrupted the investigation.

An autopsy will be performed by the Franklin County coroner, police said.

Rallies scheduled for later this week

The shooting has left the black community of Columbus in shock and rallies calling for justice in Goodson’s case are scheduled for Friday and Saturday in Columbus.

Local civil rights activists say police brutality against blacks in the central Ohio town is not new.

Law enforcement in Columbus has long had a strained relationship with the black community due to its past shootings of young black men and aggressive police in black neighborhoods, said Kiara Yakita, founder of the black liberation movement. from central Ohio.

Leaders of the Black Lives Movement said they believed Goodson had been “executed”.

“A crisis of this magnitude calls for a massive realignment of power,” said Chelsea Fuller, spokesperson for the Columbus-based Black Lives Movement. “This realignment can and will happen by defeating the police, reducing their bloated budgets and reinvesting those resources into creating new public safety systems that consider all lives, not just some.

Yakita said black residents felt exhausted, especially after joining the country to protest police brutality and racism all summer.

“We feel helpless, hopeless and hurt,” Yakita said. “It’s like we’re doing all of this for nothing.”

Morgan Harper, a local community activist, said the Columbus police used to treat black people differently.

“It’s really depressing,” Harper said. “And I think people already felt vulnerable because we can’t feel protected in our own communities. As young black men and black women, we face a level of risk negated just by living.

Columbus’ racial tension goes beyond the police. Black residents say the city’s history of redlining, segregating and gentrifying black neighborhoods has also been a boiling point.

Columbus is the fourth most economically segregated metropolitan area in the country, according to a study by the University of Toronto. The city is 59% white and 28% black.