Columbus police officers were following up on the drive-by shooting of a funeral when unknown suspects opened fire on them and residents of a home they were guarding, according to newly released body camera video and other records.
The suspects opened fire on officers and women as they stood near police cruisers at 10:35 p.m. Aug. 17 on the 600 block of Gibbard Avenue, body camera video shows. Police previously said two women were injured by the gunfire, but the officer who fired did not hit them.
At least two officers were standing in the street with the women when shots rang out, the video shows. They dove for cover behind the cruisers, while an officer standing in the backyard of a nearby home ran toward the gunfire and fired at the shooters,
who were not visible on the video.
Just before the gunfire began, an officer was talking to a woman whose image police redacted in the video.
“As far as I know, everyone that is detained got transported to headquarters,” he said in the video. The other officer was pulling crime scene tape out of the trunk of a cruiser.
A woman called 911 immediately after the shooting, saying her sister, cousin and niece were shot, according to a recording provided to The Dispatch. Two neighbors also called 911 and said they saw someone shooting at police.
Two women were hospitalized in stable condition after the shooting.
Police did not release the name of the officer who fired at the suspects. Columbus police Sgt. Joe Albert said his identity is protected under victim right’s law Marsy’s Law, and an incident report about the shooting describes an unnamed police officer as a victim of felonious assault.
The incident report for the shooting lists four possible suspects, all of them unknown. Police have not released any descriptions of the suspects or said what they believe their motive was.
Shooting connected to funeral drive-by earlier in the day
In a fact sheet accompanying the body camera video, police said the officers were on guard duty at a home on the street related to a shooting earlier that day on Woodland Avenue.
The shooting happened around 12:30 p.m. outside the Antioch Jordan Baptist Church, 1825 Woodland Park Ave., in the Argyle Park neighborhood. Medics took two people to local hospitals, and they are expected to survive their injuries.
Several people were leaving a funeral inside the church when a dark vehicle drove by and fired shots into the crowd, a police spokesperson said.
Police have not announced any arrests or said what might have motivated that shooting.
Public safety and breaking news reporter Bailey Gallion can be reached at bagallion@dispatch.com.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: New bodycam video shows shootout after drive-by shooting at funeral
