Columbus police on June 16 released body camera footage of an officer shooting one of three teenagers they say were involved in gunshots in a parking lot at a recreation center on the city’s South Side.
Police officers who were working special duty on June 11 at the Lincoln Park Pool and Barack Community Center on East Woodrow Avenue heard between four or five gunshots. Multiple gunshots can be heard on the body cameras of one of the officers who was working at the pool, which was crowded with children. The officer begins yelling “c’mon, c’mon” as the pool was evacuated moments after the shooting, the video shows.
The special duty officer immediately went to investigate and met up with several other Columbus police officers at an apartment complex near South 18th Street and East Morrill Avenue, body camera footage shows. Officers found several shell casings there.
Around five minutes later, body camera footage from another Columbus officer who was on bike patrol shows the officer coming across three males in the parking lot standing next to a black Jeep. That officer immediately gets off his bicycle and orders the three males to show their hands as he pulls out his gun. One of the males, a 15-year-old, takes off on foot and later tosses a handgun into the pool area.
The officer, using expletives, orders the other two males to lie on the ground. The 15-year-old male at the rear of the Jeep goes to the ground; he was found with what was later determined to be a BB gun. But the other male, a 16-year-old, ducks down by the driver’s side door with a gun. As he appears to start to throw it underneath the Jeep, the officer simultaneously shoots three times and strikes the teen twice — once in the leg and once in the shoulder, video shows.
Other officers soon arrive and secure the scene, and the two males are taken into custody. The 15-year-old, who police say tossed a gun in the pool area as he ran, is captured a short distance away near a ditch by a phalanx of officers. The gun was reported stolen out of a vehicle in February 2025. He is charged with carrying a concealed weapon, receiving stolen property, tampering with evidence, and obstructing official business, all felony charges.
The 16-year-old boy who was shot has been charged with carrying a concealed weapon, tampering with evidence, and obstructing official business. As of June 16, he is still hospitalized, police said.
Both teens with real guns were ordered held in juvenile detention at a hearing June 16. The 15-year-old who was taken into custody and was carrying the tan BB gun has not been charged, police said, without explanation.
No officers or other people were injured in the shooting. The shooting prompted the closure of the recreational center as well as several street blocks near the center.
The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation is leading the investigation into the officer shooting, per city policy.
Reporter Shahid Meighan can be reached at smeighan@dispatch.com, at ShahidMeighan on X, and at shahidthereporter.dispatch.com on Bluesky.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus police release body camera footage of officer shooting at Lincoln Park rec center
Reporting by Shahid Meighan, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
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