An equipment malfunction caused the deadly explosion at a Columbus paint plant back in April, investigators said Tuesday, deeming the incident an accident.
It’s happened with such regularity that by now the reaction seems routine: police shoot and kill a Black person, and protesters gather in the streets of Columbus.
Twice in April, protests formed within hours of the news that police had first shot and killed 27-year-old Miles Jackson on April 12 at Mount Carmel St. Ann s medical center after he fired a gun in the emergency department, and then again when a Columbus officer shot 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant on April 20 in response to Bryant wielding a knife against a young woman.
But while the responses to fatal police shootings are swift, James Wynn contends that each killing of a Black person reopens wounds in communities of color that have been allowed to fester for much longer than any one protest can last.
Called Andre s Law after the late Andre Hill, 47, who was fatally shot Dec. 22 by former Columbus police officer Adam Coy outside a friend s house on the Northwest Side, the new ordinance states that the changes are needed to assure the safety of all Columbus residents.
The move came on the same night the city council also approved paying more than $1 million to the victim of another police shooting one of the largest cash settlements in city history and gave final approval to spending $250,000 to establish a police early warning system to alert supervisors to problem cops.
Hill s family called the law a necessary first step.