More than five months after a Columbus police officer fatally shot Donovan Lewis, a 20-year-old unarmed Black man, his family is taking legal action.
Lawyers for Lewis’ mother, Rebecca Duran, filed a civil lawsuit Thursday against Columbus K-9 officer Ricky Anderson, who killed Lewis with a single shot to the abdomen while executing a warrant at night.
Four other officers who were present — Chance Knox, Harry Dorsey, Jack Randall and Justin Dodrill — were also named as defendants. This lawsuit does not name the City of Columbus or the Columbus Division of Police as defendants. Elliott said Duran and her legal team may decide to sue the city in federal court soon.
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Duran, as executor of her son’s estate, is seeking compensatory and punitive damages, according to the complaint.
Lewis’ “senseless death was completely preventable,” according to the complaint by Duran’s legal team, which includes Columbus attorneys Rex Elliott and Ben Cooper and Dayton-area attorney Michael Wright, who helped represent the family of Hill in a complaint that ended in a $10 million settlement paid by the city — the largest in Columbus history.
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Details of lawsuit against Columbus officers
The lawsuit cites seven counts against Anderson, a 30-year veteran of the Division of Police, including wrongful death, breach of duty and deprivation of Lewis’ state constitutional rights.
The lawsuit alleges officers violated Andre’s Law by failing to immediately render medical aid to Lewis. The law was passed in 2021 in honor of Andre Hill, an unarmed man fatally shot in December 2020 by Officer Adam Coy. The lawsuit argues that officers handcuffed Lewis as he lay on the bed groaning after being shot, patted him down and then carried him down stairs outside the apartment before rendering medical aid.
The lawsuit alleges officers had multiple nonlethal options available to apprehend Lewis — including calling for a negotiator or SWAT, deploying a stun gun, or unleashing the K-9 — but chose not to use them.
The lawsuit discusses how the officers began to talk after the shooting about what happened but then turned off their body cameras. The lawsuit claims Dorsey said at one point, “We’re just gonna stay here and say nothing until the (expletive) union gets here.”
The complaint further alleges that when the Fraternal Order of Police representative arrived and passed Duran at the site, the representative said,
“another day in the hood.”
According to the lawsuit, between 2001 and 2020, Columbus Police found Anderson violated Division of Police policy at least 10 times, including in eight cases involving either use of force or chain of command issues. Six of these alleged incidents occurred since 2018.
The complaint also states a 2020 internal affairs investigation sustained a sexual harassment allegation against Anderson.
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The shooting of Donovan Lewis
Anderson shot Lewis on Aug. 30 while Lewis was in bed during an attempted arrest on charges of domestic violence, assault and improper handling of a firearm. Lewis died at a hospital.
Police body camera video shows Anderson and Knox approach a closed bedroom door.
Anderson opened the bedroom door as Knox yelled “hands” and pointed his weapon with a flashlight at Lewis, who began to sit up in bed. Within a second of the door opening and the command, Anderson leaned around into the open door and shot once, striking Lewis in the abdomen, the video shows.
Lewis was holding in his left hand what Police Chief Elaine Bryant said later turned out to be a vape pen. Knox did not fire his weapon.
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Family calls for action
Duran said Thursday that these past 170 days have been her worst nightmare.
“It’s also been extremely frustrating,” she said. “There’s a whole lot of talk and a whole lot of words leaving organizations, but there is no action.”
Duran and Elliott said that every day without police reform allows there to be more police violence in Columbus.
“We were patient,” Elliot said at a press conference. “We said do your investigation. That’s fine. But here we sit in the middle of February without anything.”
Elliott said Anderson has not been disciplined and there has been no movement in the criminal process. Anderson has been on paid administrative leave since the shooting.
Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein’s office, which represents Columbus police officers in such legal matters, said in a statement on Thursday:
“While (the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation) completed their investigation into the facts of this incident, we have not yet seen the contents of that report because it is currently at the (Franklin) County Prosecutor’s Office awaiting grand jury presentation. We have just received a copy of the lawsuit this morning, but are still reviewing it and have no further comment at this time.”
Contributing: Bethany Bruner, The Columbus Dispatch
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