Twenty-five minutes of video captured by a Columbus police officer’s body camera shows one perspective of what happened in the early hours of Tuesday morning when Columbus K-9 officer Ricky Anderson fatally shot 20-year-old Donovan Lewis.
Columbus Division of Police and city officials released the footage Tuesday afternoon from one officer's body camera. It shows the shooting at Lewis’ second-floor apartment in the 3200 block of Sullivant Avenue. Officers were there to arrest Lewis who was wanted on several outstanding warrants.
The video shows the shooting as well as the leadup and aftermath, including police knocking on Lewis’ apartment door for nearly nine minutes, a K-9 dog searching the apartment, Anderson opening Lewis’ bedroom door and shooting Lewis less than a second later, officers handcuffing Lewis and rendering first aid.
Here is a timeline of key things the video shows. Times are approximate and derived in part using police dispatch records.
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Columbus police arrive, knock for nearly nine minutes
2:23 a.m.: The video begins with the officer wearing the camera sitting in his cruiser with another officer.
2:24 a.m.: Four officers exit their vehicles in the parking lot of the apartment building and make their way to the apartment on the second floor.
2:26 a.m.: The officer wearing the body camera knocks for the first time on the door of apartment H. Officers will knock over 20 times over the next 8 minutes, 45 seconds and repeatedly shout, telling Lewis and any occupants of the apartment to open the door.
2:27 a.m.: While continuing to knock, the officer shouts for the first time to the inhabitants of the apartment, “Hey yo, D.”
2:28 a.m.: The officer yells, “It’s Columbus police.” Officers will identify themselves as police while shouting at least a half-dozen more times.
2:34 a.m.: Somebody from inside the apartment yells to the police and says, “My hands are up.”
Two men answer the door
2:35 a.m.: A man opens the apartment door and obeys police instructions to turn around with his hands up. The officer wearing the camera handcuffs the man.
2:36 a.m.: A second man exits the apartment and complies as another officer handcuffs him. The first man volunteers he has knives and the body camera-wearing officer takes one from his waistband.
Officers repeatedly ask the men if there is anybody else in the apartment. They say they don’t know.
“OK, you know who’s in the apartment that you’re in. He’s going to get bit by a dog. So if he’s in there, tell us,” one officer says.
A dog searches the apartment
2:37 a.m.: Anderson and his K-9 have apparently arrived on the scene. Officers continue to yell into the apartment, including announcing they’re bringing in a K-9. The dog barks occasionally.
2:38 a.m.: Anderson takes the leash off the dog, and the dog enters the apartment, walks around while barking. The dog goes into the kitchen, turns right, barks and appears to go through what later is seen to be a doorway into a bedroom. Someone says something that can't be understood, officers say, "Yeah, there's somebody back there," and the sound of a door closing can be heard. Then, officers enter the apartment for the first time.
2:38:45 a.m.: Standing outside the closed bedroom door, Anderson leashes the dog. He opens a closet door next to the bedroom door and closes it.
The shooting
2:39 a.m.: Anderson stands to the right of the bedroom door, handling the dog with his left hand. The officer wearing the body camera has his gun pointed at the bedroom.
Anderson opens the door with his right hand. As the door swings open, a light possibly from a flashlight held by another officer shines into the bedroom, illuminating Lewis.
Lewis raises his head from lying on his left side on the bed and is leaning on his left arm.
Within one second of the door opening, Anderson, using his right hand, takes his gun from his holster and shoots Lewis once in the abdomen.
An officer shouts, “He’s got something in his hands.” An officer shouts, “Hand, hands, hands.”
“Let me see your right hand,” an officer shouts.
Lewis touches his side, and about 20 seconds after being shot, he rolls over and raises his hands.
Officers enter the bedroom. Lewis lays on his side, groaning. The officer wearing the camera instructs Lewis to put his hands behind his back. He drags Lewis’ right arm behind his back, saying, “Stop resisting.”
Officers call for a medic and report an officer-involved shooting.
Aftermath and rendering aid
2:40 a.m.: After handcuffing Lewis, the officer wearing the camera says, “Glove up, start rendering aid. Don’t move, Bud. … Pat him down make sure he’s good.”
Another officer pats down Lewis’ legs and groin area, undoes his belt and pulls down his pants to search him.
“Let’s get him out to the medic,” an officer says.
2:41 a.m.: Three officers begin carrying him out of the apartment. One is holding his legs and the other two each take an arm.
Another officer grabs Lewis’ body as they reach the outside stairs.
As they go down the stairs, an officer warns the others to slow down because he doesn’t have a grip. Officers appear to set Lewis down on the stairs.
The officer wearing the body camera does not help carry Lewis down the steps further, and that part is not shown as he turns away.
2:43 a.m.: The video shows Lewis on the ground at the bottom of the stairs with three officers around him.
“You’re alright. We’ve got a medic coming for you, Donovan,” an officers says.
Officers encourage Lewis, including to keep breathing.
The officer wearing the camera removes Lewis’ pants and then a pair of shorts.
2:44 a.m.: An officer begins performing chest compressions on Lewis.
An ambulance arrives in the parking lot.
2:45 a.m.: A paramedic approaches Lewis and the officers. Officers tell the medic that Lewis has a weak pulse. The medic asks officers to take the cuffs off Lewis, and they agree.
2:46 a.m.: Officers and the medic put Lewis on some kind of tarp to carry him a short distance to a waiting gurney. He’s wheeled away toward the ambulance.
2:47 a.m.: More officers who've arrived on the scene ask who was in the apartment when the shooting happened. Officers begin to respond. The video ends.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: A breakdown of the video of the police-shooting of Donovan Lewis