COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – A year after a 22-year-old black man was killed by a white police officer while carrying an air rifle in an Ohio Wal-Mart, federal officials’ review of the case remains unfinished as his relatives plan an anniversary vigil – and the region grapples with the aftermath of a different deadly police shooting.
John Crawford III was shot Aug. 5 in suburban Dayton after a 911 caller reported seeing someone at the store waving a gun. A local grand jury concluded the shooting was justified, but his family contends he was shot without a chance to respond to police.
The case and others that followed – including the deaths of 18-year-old Michael Brown days later in Ferguson, Missouri, and 12-year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland in November – have fueled national dialogue about police use of force, especially by white officers against blacks. Attention again turned to southwest Ohio over the past few days as a now-fired University of Cincinnati policeman who shot a driver during a traffic stop pleaded not guilty to murder.
“It does not appear that anything has changed for the better in this past year – that we’re still having a lot of police-involved shootings of young black men,” said Michael Wright, an attorney for Crawford’s family.
They want to see charges filed in Crawford’s case and plan to voice that call as they mark the anniversary with a rally and prayer vigil Wednesday at Dayton’s courthouse square.