Columbus police to limit serving certain warrants overnight after Donovan Lewis' death

Columbus Police Chief Elaine Bryant has issued an internal memo changing the Division of Police's policy on serving warrants overnight on certain wanted suspects in the wake of the fatal police shooting of 20-year-old Donovan Lewis.

Lewis was fatally shot early Aug. 30 at his apartment on Sullivant Avenue in the Hilltop neighborhood by Officer Ricky Anderson. The shooting, which is under investigation by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, occurred shortly after 2 a.m. as Anderson and other officers were serving warrants for Lewis' arrest on a felony charge of improperly handling a firearm and misdemeanor charges of domestic violence and assault for an Aug. 10 incident involving Lewis' pregnant girlfriend.

In the internal memo issued at 12:50 p.m. Thursday, Bryant said that effective immediately, no preplanned arrest warrants may be served by Columbus police at private residences between the hours of 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. for misdemeanor warrants — including domestic violence — or nonviolent felony warrants unless approved by a lieutenant or higher rank.

Lewis family attorney had called for end to overnight warrant serves

Bryant issued her internal memo about an hour and 20 minutes after the start of a press conference held in front of Columbus City Hall where Rex Elliott, an attorney representing Lewis' family, called for an end to overnight warrant serves, saying his death was avoidable.

Elliott said the practice should end "unless there's dangerous, exigent circumstances."

Closer look: A timeline of the Donovan Lewis fatal police shooting

"My goal has always been to have policies and procedures in place to provide you with guidance, clarity and safety," Bryant said in the memo. "For those reasons I must look not only at individual incidents but at the division and its personnel as a whole."

A preplanned warrant is one where the sole reason an officer is going to an address is to serve a warrant, Bryant said. The change in policy does not apply to the SWAT or other tactical units, she said.

"You all do an amazing job daily," Bryant said. "This does not change the good work you do but temporarily changes how you do it. As I have said before, I support you and will always look for ways to help you do your job safely and effectively."

Columbus police did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the timing of the policy change.

Contacted by The Dispatch Thursday night about Bryant's memo, Elliott called the quick action by the police chief a "good first step" and said it gives hope for change within the police division.

"It's a start, but it's a clear admission that what happened that night was unnecessary and avoidable," Elliott said.

Overnight warrant serve ends in fatal police shooting

Shortly after 2 a.m. on Aug. 30, Columbus police officers spent between eight and 10 minutes knocking on Lewis' apartment door before one of two other men inside opened the door and let officers into the unit. (The two men were detained by police as witnesses, but have not been charged or identified by city police.)

After announcing themselves again and ordering anyone else inside to come out, officers sent a K-9 dog into the apartment. The dog appears on police body camera footage to go around a corner from the living room and bark repeatedly in the area of the kitchen and a bedroom door, prompting an audible verbal response from someone inside. The dog goes into the area a second time, prompting a second verbal reaction, and then what sounds like a door shutting is heard on the camera footage.

Lewis was the only person in the apartment at that point, bodycam video indicates.

For subscribers: Search warrant shows no firearm was found in Donovan Lewis' apartment

Officers, including Anderson, entered the apartment. Anderson opened the closed bedroom door and an officer with a light on his gun trained on Lewis as he sat up in the bed yelled, "Hands!" A split second later, Anderson leaned into the open door and fired his weapon one time, striking Lewis in the abdomen with a bullet that did not exit his body.

Bryant said a vape pen that appeared to be in one of Lewis' hands when Anderson fired was seen on Lewis' bed in the body camera video as they placed the wounded, moaning suspect in handcuffs.

Columbus police officers carried Lewis down a flight of outside stairs from his second-floor apartment and placed him in a patch of grass, where they administered CPR and medical aid as required by a change in city policy months after the fatal police shooting of Andre Hill in December 2020.

Columbus Division of Fire medics — who were told three times that they could go straight to the shooting scene, according to records released with additional police body camera footage Thursday — eventually arrived and transported Lewis to OhioHealth Grant Medical Center Downtown.

Lewis was pronounced dead at the hospital at 3:19 a.m.

Anderson, a 30-year veteran; Sgt. Chance Knox, who had his gun on Lewis but did not fire when the door opened; and two other officers inside were all placed on administrative leave immediately after the shooting per division policy.

The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation is investigating the shooting and will turn its findings over to the Franklin County Prosecutor's Office for presentation to a county grand jury. The Columbus Civilian Police Review Board also has directed the city's Inspector General to review the shooting once BCI's criminal investigation is completed.

The funeral for Lewis will be held Saturday at Christian Valley Baptist Church, 3330 Scottwood Road, on Columbus' East Side. Visitation begins at 11 a.m. and the service will begin at noon.

@Colebehr_report

Cbehrens@dispatch.com

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus police limiting overnight warrant serves after fatal police shooting