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Police officer killed victim of break-in
Friends, family angry as questions go unanswered; one man charged


Maybe if the police officer had arrived just a minute later, the young man would still be alive.

That’s what the friends and family of Destin Thomas say, after Columbus police confirmed yesterday that it was one of their own officers who shot and killed Thomas while responding to a 911 call he had made on Tuesday morning.

Police gave few details yesterday about what happened between the 21-year-old Thomas and Officer William Kaufman, a 17-year veteran, citing the ongoing investigation.

They said that Kaufman shot Thomas twice, in his hip and chest. Thomas died at the scene.

“The fact that they’re trying to justify it, no apology or nothing, (just saying), ‘Oh, we’re just doing what we were trained to do,’” said Thomas’ cousin Derek Harris, 24. “I didn’t know you were trained to kill the person you were supposed to help.”

Police also said yesterday that they’ve charged a man who they had said earlier was thought to be involved in the break-in at Thomas’ Far East Side apartment — the reason that Thomas had called police.

David J. O’Neal, 19, of Shaker Heights, Ohio, is charged with grand theft auto, vandalism and receiving stolen property — all fourth-degree felonies — as well as a count of obstructing official business, a fifth-degree felony.

All of those charges are in connection to a stolen police cruiser that authorities say O’Neal took from an officer who was patrolling about a half-mile from Thomas’ apartment on Tuesday afternoon.

So far, O’Neal hasn’t been charged in the break-in, though Sgt. Rich Weiner, spokesman for Columbus police, said other charges could be filed. O’Neal was in the Fairfield County jail tonight under $500,000 bond.

Thomas was found with a gun next to his body, but police haven’t said where that gun came from or whether Thomas even had it in his hand when he was shot.

His roommate and cousin have both said that Thomas didn’t own a gun, and they think he somehow got the weapon off the men who broke into his apartment at 7277 Brooke Blvd.

Thomas’ roommate, DelShawn Walker, 22, said his friend had no interest in guns. “He said on several occasions, ‘I don’t plan on getting a gun. I don’t need one,’” he said.

Walker and Harris are angry with police. Thomas was the one the police were supposed to be protecting, they said.

“If (the officer) didn’t show up on time, he’d still be alive today, because he did their job for them (by chasing the burglars out),” Harris said.

Police have said that Officer Kaufman saw Thomas and another man run from the apartment. A neighbor said that a third man also ran from it, though police so far have arrested only O'Neal.

When Thomas called 911 at 8:46 a.m. Tuesday, he said in a whispered voice that people had broken into his apartment and he could hear them talking.

O’Neal was caught several hours later when Police Officer Billie Camp-Donovan saw him and recognized him as a suspect wanted in connection with the break-in. She jumped from her cruiser to chase him, and he doubled back and stole the cruiser, police say. Camp-Donovan then fired six gunshots at the cruiser, though she didn’t hit O’Neal.

The county prosecutor’s office will review both officers’ actions.

Walker and Harris wonder why, if Thomas was holding a gun when he ran from his apartment, the officer didn’t ask him to put it down. Knowing Thomas, they said, he would have immediately.

“I honestly believe he was trying to tell them, ‘I’m the one who called you,’” Walker said. “But they didn’t give him a chance.”

Police officers, though, say they have little time to sort out a situation when someone is holding a weapon.

Because of the rash of recent police shootings, officers held a demonstration of how they handle confrontations with armed people for media representatives at the Police Training Academy today.

Columbus Police Chief Kimberley Jacobs said it’s impossible for officers to predict what a person intends to do when that person approaches with a weapon.

“We have to be able to react in instantaneous fashion,” she said.

Asked if she was concerned that Thomas might have been wrongly shot, she said it “would be concerning if someone who has no (malicious intent) toward an officer was shot.”

“But we can’t predict that, and we can’t know that when someone has a gun in their hand.”

That explanation is little comfort to Thomas’ friend and cousin.

peasant wrote..

“I didn’t know you were trained to kill the person you were supposed to help.”

bootjack thug wrote..

“We have to be able to react in instantaneous fashion,”

Quote:

Columbus Police Chief Kimberley Jacobs said it’s impossible for officers to predict what a person intends to do when that person approaches with a weapon.

“We have to be able to react in instantaneous fashion,” she said.