By Jim Woods
The Columbus Dispatch
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Two people were shot yesterday afternoon by a Columbus police officer who opened fire after a door was slammed on his hand at a South Side home.
Brian Bates, 44, was charged last night with felony assault on a police officer, whose name hasn’t yet been released. Police say that Bates pinned the officer’s hand in the door.
Bates, of the East Side, was hit in his neck by the officer’s bullet, which also passed through his cheek.
Last night, Bates was in stable condition at OhioHealth Grant Medical Center.
Police haven’t yet released the name of the 23-year-old woman who also was shot. She was not charged.
Columbus police spokesman Sgt. Rich Weiner said the woman, who was shot in her arm, was near the door when the officer opened fire. She was treated at Grant and released.
The police officer was treated for a possible broken hand at the same hospital, Weiner said.
Weiner gave the following account:
Two officers on patrol were flagged down around 4 p.m. by a man who said his sister might be shooting heroin at 394 E. Hinman Ave., which is known in the neighborhood as a drug house.
One of the two officers knocked on the back door, and Bates answered. Weiner said that Bates slammed the door on the officer’s hand.
The officer yelled repeatedly, “Let me go!” but Bates held the door shut.
The officer pulled out his gun with his free hand and fired multiple times through the wooden door. At least three bullet holes were visible in the door.
Police said at least nine others were inside the house when the shooting occurred; no one else was injured.
Neighbors say they saw police escorting people out of the green duplex, which is west of the Parsons Avenue intersection.
Weiner said the officer fired his gun because he was in a “vulnerable position.”
“It’s unknown what is behind the door,” Weiner said. “Why are you trying to shut the door on the officer?”
It is unclear whether the woman who was shot was the same person whom police were looking for when they knocked on the door, or whether that woman was in the house at all.
This was the eighth officer-involved shooting in Columbus this year.
Copyright 2014 The Columbus Dispatch