Columbus police release bodycam videos showing police responding to Short North gunfire

© Barbara Perenic/Columbus Dispatch A still photo taken from a Columbus police body cam video released Monday afternoon shows officers responding to gunfire early Saturday morning in the 600 block of North High Street in the Short North. Ten people were wounded, police said, including a suspected gunman who was taken into custody.

More than 48 hours after a chaotic shooting spree in Columbus’ Short North, the city Division of Police has not yet said whether any of the 10 people shot were hit by police gunfire.

During a Monday news conference at Division of Police headquarters Downtown, Chief Elaine Bryant called the early Saturday morning shooting in the Short North “an explosion of gunfire.” Some of the 10 known shooting victims, who range in age from 18 to 27, drove themselves to hospitals, she said.

Details from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, which is leading the investigation as a matter of city policy in all shootings involving Columbus police in which a person is injured or killed, are not being shared publicly. That includes the style, ownership and legal status of 11 guns found at the crime scene.

Two separate incidents, apparently unrelated, in the Short North were separated about seven minutes and several blocks.

© Barbara Perenic/Columbus Dispatch Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther addresses the media Monday during a press conference at city police headquarters after a violent weekend that saw three seperate shootings early Saturday morning, including an incident in the Short North that wounded 10 and closed the area for hours.

Bryant said that officers had gone to the 600 block of North High Street around 2:30 a.m. Saturday after getting a report of a shooting. While the officers were on the scene, more gunshots were heard a few blocks north.

One of two Columbus police bodycam videos released Monday show Columbus police officers Carl Harmon, a member of the Division of Police for 5 years, and Jacob Velas, who has 6½ years with the division, walking up North High Street toward a group of people where an argument is going on and one woman is pulling another woman’s hair.

Viewer discretion is advised Video of bodycam footage from Saturday shootings in Short North during Columbus Police news conference

The officers, who were on assignment in the Short North checking food trucks in the area at the time, began efforts to break up the argument in front of a United Dairy Farmers store at 847 N. High St..

The problem appeared to center around a woman who was screaming wildly and pushing others who attempted to restrain her. At one point she yelled “I’m not fighting” while flailing her arms and falling to the pavement.

A few moments after, gunfire erupted, prompting a city-wide emergency with officers responded from other Columbus precincts.

Officers Harmon and Velas “immediately ran toward the gunfire and ran toward the subject.” Bryant said.

© Barbara Perenic/Columbus Dispatch A screen shot from body camera footage released Monday at a press conference shows Columbus police officers and Columbus Fire medics attending to a person shot early Saturday morning in the 600 block of North High Street. Ten people were wounded by gunfire, including one critically. The incident is being investigated by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation

A bodycam shows officers moving toward a gunman down in front of Roaming Goat Coffee at 849 N. High St. The video shows one of the officers kicking a handgun away from the man, who is bleeding heavily. The 20-year-old man was handcuffed and transported to Ohio State Wexner Medical Center in critical condition.

Police have not said whether any of those injured were struck by police gunfire. However, Ohio BCI was leading the investigation.

Special report: UNDER FIRE – A look at gun violence in Columbus

The shootings in the Short North, in one of the most popular social hubs of Columbus, sent bullets into buildings and ricocheting elsewhere. Several bystanders were seen running for safety as officers told them to get down. Some people were crouching or hiding beside buildings for safety. The aftermath closed down much of the Short North for hours.

Columbus Mayor Andrew J. Ginther thanked police who under pressure showed compassion for the victims. He called the incident and three other shootings Friday and Saturday “truly horrific.”

There were two other shootings early Saturday that were fatal, one in Linden that police say was a domestic violence case, and one behind a home on East Whittier Street in the South Side.

City officials have cited a surge in domestic violence runs, accounting for 20% of all homicides so far this year.

© Barbara Perenic/Columbus Dispatch Columbus police Chief Elaine Bryant addresses the media Monday about the violence that saw three seperate shootings early Saturday morning, including gunfire that injured 10 people and closed the Short North for hours.

Ginther said that state and federal lawmakers need “to step up and help us get illegal crime guns off our streets.”

“We have a simple request,” Ginther said. “Get out of our way. Let us lead at the local level to enact basic, common sense gun legislration. We know what we need to do. We have done it before.”

Background checks, red flag laws, banning of bump stocks and assault-style weapons were among solutions that have been proposed in Columbus, but rejected by many state and federal lawmakers.

Asked if he felt safe in Columbus, Ginther said that he and his wife had dinner Saturday night in the Short North.

“The Short North is safe,” he said. “But every neighborhood could be safer.”

dnarciso@dispatch.com

@DeanNarciso

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@bethany_bruner

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus police release bodycam videos showing police responding to Short North gunfire