Family of Donovan Lewis files lawsuit accusing Columbus police of systemic racism
The family of a man fatally shot by a Columbus police officer in 2022 has filed a federal lawsuit accusing the Columbus Division of Police of systemic racism with the hopes of achieving reforms that have eluded the department for decades.
The lawsuit was filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Columbus against the city and Columbus police Chief Elaine Bryant on behalf of Rebecca Duran, the mother of 20-year-old Donovan Lewis.
Lewis was shot one time by former Columbus police officer Ricky Anderson in the early morning of Aug. 30, 2022, as Columbus police tried to arrest Lewis, who was asleep in an apartment on Sullivant Avenue. Lewis had outstanding warrants for misdemeanors, including domestic violence.
What does the lawsuit say?
Rex Elliott, one of the attorneys representing Duran, said the goal of the lawsuit is to try and force changes that the community has sought for more than 20 years.
Elliott cited a lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice against the city in the late 1990s that could have led to a consent decree involving Columbus police. However, that lawsuit was resolved several years later without such a decree.
Learn more: With Justice Department review possible, could consent decree be next for Columbus police?
Columbus has four times the number of fatal police uses of force than Cincinnati and Cleveland, Elliott said, and 75% of the local deaths involve Black residents, who make up about 29% of the city's population.
"The family believes very strongly that police officers in Columbus should be targeting crime and not color,” Elliott said.
The lawsuit also contends that an enforcement team that began operating in the neighborhood where Lewis lived in early 2022 deployed "aggressive, street-style policing tactics in areas with high concentrations of Black residents."
A list of 11 proposed reforms is included with the lawsuit. Those reforms include:
Amending the city's charter to create a "city-funded, operationally independent, professionally staffed, public-facing entity empowered to participate fully in criminal and administrative investigations involving officer-involved shootings."
Requiring funds for civil settlements and jury verdicts in police misconduct cases to come from the officer pension fund instead of other city funding sources
Requiring officers who retire in bad standing or while under investigation to forfeit their pension and all other benefits
Publishing data on all stops and arrests by Columbus officers, including demographic information
Creating a concrete timeline for when the city must provide public updates on police shootings
Changing police protocol for how family visitation of victims of police shootings is handled.
Columbus police already implemented several proposed reforms, including how officers serve misdemeanor arrest warrants.
After the shooting, Bryant changed department policy to bar officers from attempting to arrest suspects on misdemeanor or non-violent felony warrants between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. unless the warrant is approved by a lieutenant or higher.
Why file this lawsuit?
Columbus police undertook similar efforts to enact reforms in the past through efforts that did not involve a lawsuit.
In 2021, the city of Columbus asked the Department of Justice to review the police department's policies and procedures for any possible racial bias. The DOJ released a report in 2023 that did not examine use of force. A review specifically looking at Columbus police officers' use of force is underway by the DOJ's Community Oriented Policing Services unit.
Elliott said he hopes the lawsuit will force the city to the table in a way that previous efforts at reforming policing in Columbus have not.
The lawsuit says the department's internal affairs bureau, which has been replaced in large part by the Civilian Police Review Board approved by voters in 2020, has not investigated officers for misconduct and is understaffed.
"It is exceedingly rare for the Columbus Division of Police to discipline officers involved in the use of excessive force, and it is exceedingly rare for those officers to face criminal charges,” the lawsuit says.
Since 2019, three Columbus police officers, including Anderson, have been indicted on murder charges for on-duty shootings that resulted in a death. Former Franklin County Sheriff's deputy Jason Meade has also been indicted for an on-duty fatal shooting.
What happened in the shooting of Donovan Lewis?
Columbus police released body camera video showing officers knocking on the apartment door for nearly nine minutes without a response from Lewis or anyone else inside the apartment. After getting access to the apartment from someone else inside, Anderson's K-9 searched the apartment.
Lewis' bedroom door can be heard closing in the video. The body camera shows Anderson opening Lewis' bedroom door and firing a round less than a second later. Lewis was sitting up in bed at the time.
Duran previously filed a lawsuit against Anderson and the other officers who were involved in the aftermath of the shooting, accusing them of violating Andre's Law and failing to provide medical attention to Lewis, as well as using excessive force and wrongful death.
That lawsuit remains pending in Franklin County Common Pleas Court.
Anderson has been indicted on charges of murder and reckless homicide in Franklin County Common Pleas Court. While a trial date is tentatively scheduled for April 22, court records show the trial will be continued because expert witness reports have not been provided by prosecutors or Anderson's defense attorneys.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Lawsuit: Columbus police's systemic racism led to Donovan Lewis' death
