COLUMBUS, Ohio — Family members continue to seek action and justice for Donovan Lewis as it’s been more than a week since the 20-year-old man was fatally shot by a Columbus police officer.
Lewis’ family and attorney Rex Lewis spoke outside Columbus City Hall Thursday morning calling for a quick and independent investigation into the Aug. 30 shooting.
Body camera footage shows Anderson opening a bedroom door in an apartment and in a second or less shooting Lewis, who was in bed. Officers handcuffed him, carried him outside the apartment and performed life-saving measures.
He was taken to Grant Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.
During the press briefing, Rebecca Duran said she was “at a loss for words.” She recalled her son Lewis having the biggest heart and wanting others to live well.
As far as the next steps go, Duran wants to see action.
“After Andre Hill, a lot of things have been put in place. There was a lot of talk, but there hasn’t been a lot of action. And I want to see real action,” she said. “There’s the saying ‘don’t talk about it, be about it.’ Let’s see something happen, not just conversation and conversation.”
In a search warrant obtained by 10TV, agents with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation went to Lewis’ apartment and collected a vape pen from his bed and a cartridge casing on the floor in the doorway to the bedroom.
The warrant does not list any firearms being found in the apartment.
In an affidavit filed with the search warrant, police wrote limited background of the events leading to the shooting. The document stated that “a confrontation occurred resulting in a Columbus Police Officer discharging his weapon.”
However, the body camera footage does not show any confrontation prior to the shooting.
In an interview with CNN, Lewis’ mother Rebecca Duran called the night of the shooting “sickening" and wants charges to be filed against Anderson.
“I want the officer who shot him to be charged, indicted, in jail ultimately. I don’t want him in any capacity of police, any police capacity ever again in his life,” said Duran. “What justice looks like for us is to make sure that we find the flaw in the system so that no family like this good family has to go through something like this again.”
The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation is handling the investigation. Dayton-area attorney Michael Wright, who helped represent the family of Andre Hill, will join as part of the family's legal team.