COLUMBUS, Ohio — A Franklin County grand jury has declined to indict the Columbus Division of Police officers involved in the fatal shooting of a man who was wielding a knife earlier this year.
Franklin County Prosecuting Attorney G. Gary Tyack announced the grand jury's decision on Friday.
The incident happened on Feb. 22 outside of Creekside Place Apartments on North Nelson Road.
Officers had been called to the area on a report of a man, later identified as 26-year-old Colin Jennings, cutting himself and fighting the person who called 911, police said during a news conference earlier this year.
A spokesperson from the Columbus Department of Public Safety said the 911 call came in from a man reporting that his boyfriend was attempting to harm himself with a knife.
Forty-five seconds into the call, the man then told the 911 dispatcher that his boyfriend was fighting with him trying to take the phone away. The caller later reported that his boyfriend was trying to attack him, refusing to let him leave and that he was trying to punch him in the throat.
A public safety official said the city's Right Response Unit or using clinicians to help de-escalate a mental health crisis was not possible because there were threats of violence within seconds.
Two officers arrived at the scene and found Jennings. A police spokesperson said Jennings started charging at officers with the knife.
The officers told Jennings to stop, but he continued to charge at them and told police to shoot him, according to the spokesperson.
Body camera video released earlier this year shows officers telling Jennings to back up and drop the knife, but he continues to approach them.
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One officer fired their gun three times, striking Jennings at least once, while the other officer deployed his stun gun.
Officers rendered aid until medics took him to Grant Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.
No officers were injured in the shooting.
While police did not identify the officers involved in the shooting because of Marsy's Law, the officers have been with the department for 13 and 14 years.
