The mother of Casey Goodson Jr., the man shot to death last week by a Franklin County Sheriff’s deputy, is speaking out on her son’s behalf.
“I want murder charges,” Goodson’s mother, Tamala Payne, told NBC4 on Wednesday afternoon. “I want (the deputy’s) badge taken. I want him prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
“If it was us, we’d be in jail by now. But because it was an officer, I have to wait months upon months and weeks upon weeks for my son’s death to be avenged.”
Goodson died Friday after being shot by Deputy Jason Meade, who was on assignment with the U.S. Marshal’s Service fugitive task force in the Northland area. Goodson was not related to the marshal’s operations.
An attorney working for Goodson’s family, Sean Walton, expressed frustration with the early stages of the investigation into Goodson’s death. It was offered by Columbus police to the state Bureau of Criminal Investigations, which said it wouldn’t get involved since it was invited to come in days after the shooting.
“This investigation is being led by people who believe that officers act correctly almost all of the time,” Walton said.
Payne and Walton also were frustrated by initial reports by officers that the shooting was justified, especially considering that versions of what happened differ from police accounts and Goodson’s family.
According to police, as the marshals operations were wrapping up, Goodson drove past them waving a gun. Several officers followed him, and when they caught up to him, commanded him to drop the weapon. After a verbal exchange, Meade fired at Goodson.
The Franklin County coroner reported Wednesday that Goodson was struck several times in his torso.
In their version, Goodson’s relatives said he was returning home from a dentist’s appointment with Subway sandwiches. He was shot and killed as he unlocked his door and entered his home. His death was witnessed by Goodson’s 72-year-old grandmother and two toddlers who were near the door.
Police and Goodson’s family both say Goodson had a permit to carry a concealed weapon (CCW), and Payne said that her son wanted to become a CCW instructor.
Walton said, “I get so upset when somebody asks why did Casey have a gun? Casey wanted to protect his family. That was his right. Casey was brave because he took on that weight of having a CCW knowing that he may die.”
Walton said that Goodson willingly put himself at increased risk by carrying a concealed weapon as a Black man.
“Black people deserve the right to be able to protect themselves in this country,” Walton said, “because nobody else protects us.”
Columbus police and the FBI are investigating the shooting, and the results of their investigation will be turned over the Franklin County prosecutor’s office for presentation to a grand jury.
On Wednesday, Franklin County Sheriff Dallas Baldwin issued a statement expressing sympathy for Goodson’s survivors as well as for Meade, and asking that the investigation be allowed to play out.
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… Payne … wants to fight for justice for her son and for people to know about him in different ways, as the animal lover that he was and as a good brother.
“It just hurts,” she said. “It hurts because we’re never going to have that again. We’re never going to see his funny side or get to watch him dance with his siblings, because he loved to dance and make videos.
“It hurts” (Charles 1-2).
During the task force operation in Columbus, Meade reported seeing a man with a gun and was investigating the situation when reportedly there was a verbal exchange prior to the shooting, Columbus police previously said.
An attorney for Meade says Goodson pointed a gun at the deputy prior to the shooting, adding "there has been confirmation that our client gave verbal commands for Mr. Goodson to drop the gun."
Police have said no other officers witnessed the shooting, there have been no civilian eyewitnesses identified and there is no body camera footage because Franklin County Sheriff's task force officers aren't issued body cameras. Meade's attorney, Mark Collins, also noted no eyewitnesses have been identified.
Attorneys for Goodson's family said in their own news release "neither the City of Columbus nor any other investigatory agency has alleged that Casey Goodson pointed a gun before Meade pulled the trigger."
"With Meade's statement issued nearly one full week after he killed Casey, it is critical to note that this is a classic defense often claimed by police after they shoot and kill someone," they said. "It is also critical to remember that often the evidence does not support these claims."
Peter Tobin, US Marshal for the Southern District of Ohio, said last Friday the fugitive task force was wrapping up an unrelated investigation when a deputy saw a man "driving down the street waving a gun." The man was confronted by the deputy and "allegedly started to pull a gun and the officer fired," Tobin previously told reporters. He added the shooting appeared justified but would be investigated.
Goddson's family attorneys criticized Columbus authorities Thursday, saying they proceeded "through their investigation" with the assumption in mind that Goodson's shooting was justified.
"Casey was treated as a criminal. Not only Casey but his family were treated as suspects. They were treated as criminals," family attorney Sarah Gelsomino said.
The responding officers, she added, "brought with them their bias against Casey, and in favor of Meade" (Maxouris 1).
The Franklin County Sheriff's SWAT deputy who shot and killed Casey Goodson Jr. on Dec. 4 is also a Baptist pastor and has used his faith to justify law enforcement’s use of force.
Michael Jason Meade, a 17-year sheriff's department veteran who goes by Jason, described use of force as "righteous release" in a 2018 video posted on YouTube by the Franklin County Sheriff's Office.
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"There is release in our job that, righteously, we can actually have a use of force," Meade said.
Meade, 42, was assigned to warrants and extraditions with the sheriff's SWAT unit and the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force in December 2013.
Since 2014, Meade has been pastor at Rosedale Free Will Baptist Church in the unincorporated community of Irwin in Madison County, described by Associate Pastor Paul Moore as “a little country church” with about 80 congregants.
Meade served in Iraq in 2005 with the storied Lima Company as a reserve Marine. He and his wife, Abby, have two children.
In another 2018 recording of Meade's comments on law enforcement and faith, he described his assignment with the U.S. Marshals task force as "hunting people."
Meade told an audience of fellow Free Will Baptist Pastors at a conference in 2018 about his job looking for fugitives.
“I hunt people," he said, garnering laughter. "It’s a great job, I love it."
In the 2018 sermon posted online and since taken down by the Ohio Free Will Baptist Association, Meade was preaching on the biblical story of David and Goliath and talked about how he is justified in throwing the first punch.
About 30 minutes into the 37-minute sermon, Meade tells the audience where he works and that his SWAT colleagues and bosses were there to see him preach.
He told the audience that he has never been punched in the face during his 14 years on the job.
"Because I learned long ago I got to throw the first punch. And I learned long ago why I'm justified in throwing the first punch,” Meade said. "Don't look up here like 'police brutality.' People I hit, you wish you could hit, trust me.”
Meade also said it's contagious when someone "throws the first punch. "He likened it to David hitting Goliath using a slingshot.
"One of my SWAT guys throws a punch, I gotta throw one in, too," Meade said. "It's the truth. We have this little saying, 'Hey, if you're going to get in trouble, I'm going to get in trouble, too. You get days off, I get days off, too. We'll make a vacation out of it.'”
In June 2018, shortly before the video was posted by the Sheriff's Office, Meade was among seven officers who fired their weapons during a standoff in Pike County that ended with two men dead.
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Meade's personnel file shows that, in 2010, his supervisors at the Sheriff's Office requested he be moved off the Special Investigations Unit, which investigates drug crimes, because he didn't live up to the expectations of an investigator after almost two years in the unit.
“After numerous attempts to correct problems, Det. Meade persists in his deficiencies,” Sgt. D.R. Hunt wrote to the sheriff.
Hunt also noted a confrontation between Meade and a corporal in front of co-workers and people from other agencies that "rose to the level of insubordination."
In an evaluation in September 2010, Lt. Shawn Bain rated Meade below expectations for quantity, quality and timeliness. He described how Meade did not prepare search warrants regularly or have enough of them, in one case not filing a robbery report until seven months after it happened.
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After he left the Special Investigations Unit, Meade was transferred on Feb. 12, 2012, to patrol children services relief and then transferred again less than a month later on March 6, 2012, when he was selected to be on patrol.
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On Dec. 4, Meade was working with the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force searching for a wanted suspect in Columbus' Northland area, where Goodson lived. The unsuccessful effort was concluding when U.S. Marshal Peter Tobin said Meade saw a man drive by waving a handgun.
Meade confronted Goodson as he exited his car on Estates Place, where Goodson, a 23-year-old Black man, was entering his grandmother's home. Tobin said Meade ordered Goodson to drop his weapon, commands heard by a civilian nearby.
Goodson's family said he was coming inside with food for his siblings after a dentist appointment when he was shot in the back three times and fell into the kitchen of the home (King 1-2).
The family account of what happened is different from what officers on the scene relayed. Goodson’s mother said the officer shot him as he was walking into the house.
“They shot him in his back three times. He had food in his hands and was unlocking the door walking in. He was in between the screen door and big door when the officer shot. Casey made it thru the door and fell on the floor hands the fuck up, his food, his mask, and his air pod were all right there with him,” said his mother, Tamala Payne, in a social media post. ...
On Twitter, his sister Kylee Harper stated that her brother had been walking from his car trying to get into his house.
“My brother literally walked across the yard, walked into the back fence to get to the side door, had his subway and mask in one hand, keys in the other,” Harper tweeted. In a similar post on Facebook, she explicitly said the officers were lying about what happened.
“They are lying! My brother literally walked across the yard, walked into the back fence to get to the side door, had his subway and mask in one hand keys in the other, UNLOCKED AND OPENED THE DOOR and stepped in the house before shooting him. IF HE WAS SUCH A THREAT WHY DID YOU WAIT SO LONG TO SHOOT?! WHY DID YOU KILL A MAN WALKING INTO HIS OWN HOME?! HE JUST WANTED TO ENJOY HIS SUBWAY AFTER LEAVING THE DENTISTS OFFICE AND NOW MY 23 YEAR OLD BROTHER WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO LIVE HIS LIFE, TO HAVE A FAMILY, NOTHING! THEY TOOK THAT MANS FUTURE FROM HIM AND CHANGED ALL OF OURS. this is just really unbelievable. My outlook on life has completely changed. I am grateful for everyone in my life. I love all of y’all. Please tell everyone you care about that you love them as much as you can.”
Another sibling, Janae Sanford, also shared a post on Facebook detailing the same story.
“He was in that black car walked from the black car past the front of our house through the gate to the door, and in our house, he was shot in his back through his screen door!” she wrote. “If he was waving his gun around, why didn’t y’all handle it when he parked and got all his stuff out of the car? He had no clue of what was happening, my poor brother,” she wrote in the post.
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Following the incident, many on social media and local organizers began demanding to see body camera footage of the incident in the hopes it would provide clarity. For example, organizers held a vigil for Goodson the night after being killed, and they included several demands. One of those was to see the body camera footage.
But the Franklin County Sheriff’s office doesn’t use body cameras, Marc Gofstein, a spokesperson for the office, said via email (Grisso and Goins 1-2).
A Franklin County Sheriff’s Deputy who was executing a warrant fatally shot a 23-year-old Black man uninvolved in the warrant six times — five times in the back and once in the gluteus — according to a coroner’s autopsy released Thursday.
The attorneys for the family of Casey Goodson Jr., who was killed outside his home on Dec. 6, also released the autopsy report early on Wednesday.
Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther said Friday that the autopsy report was "shocking, disturbing, and infuriating."
"Now that that autopsy is complete, it's time to see the grand jury, and move on with this process, and hold folks accountable. That's what we need to do is get justice for Casey Goodson, for Ms. Payne and his family," Ginther said.
Goodson was shot outside his home according to court documents, and he collapsed near the doorway. Goodson had been holding sandwiches, a keychain and was legally carrying a firearm.
Franklin County Sheriff Dallas Baldwin wrote in a statement Wednesday that while the autopsy is an important part of the investigation, more details are needed to understand what happened.
Goodson’s mother, Tamala Payne, shared her raw emotion in a Facebook post Thursday morning.
“Hey my baby....It’s been a sleepless night! You’ve been on my mind heavy!!! After seeing the pictures of your beautiful body riddled with bullets, speaking with Dr. Ortiz personally over a month ago and reading this report I still for the life of me can’t grasp this happened to you and I know it’s real!!! My heart just hurts soooooo bad BC you were for the right thing!!! But now the world knows the truth!!!,” she wrote. “It’s time this coward is thrown in jail like the dirty dog he is!!! Although my patience are super thin I am humbled by the fact that I know in my heart god’s hands is on this and we will prevail...I won’t stop until we do!!!!!”
Franklin County Sheriff's Deputy Jason Meade, who has not been charged with a crime, has been placed on administrative leave. Baldwin said Wednesday the department will take further actions against Meade if evidence shows he used force when Goodson was not a threat, but said, “criminal investigations over the years have shown that the physical location of gunshot wounds alone do not always tell the entire story of what happened” (Taylor and Grieve 1-2).
Works cited:
Charles, Kerry. “ Mother Says, ‘I Want Murder Charges’ against Deputy Who Shot and Killed Casey Goodson Jr.” NBC4i, updated December 9, 2020. Net. https://www.nbc4i.com/news/mother-says-i-want-murder-charges-against-deputy-who-shot-and-killed-casey-goodson-jr/
Grisso, Jaelynn and Goins, Davante’. “Family of Columbus Man Killed by Officer Say the Police Are Lying.” Matter News, updated May 6, 2021. Net. https://www.matternews.org/crossing-the-line/family-of-columbus-man-killed-by-officer-say-the-police-are-lying
King, Danae. “Ohio Deputy Who Killed Casey Goodson Has Used Faith To Justify Use of Force Before.” USA Today, December 29, 2020. Net. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/12/29/who-jason-meade-deputy-who-killed-casey-goodson-columbus-ohio/4070790001/
Maxouris, Christina. “Here's What We Know about the Casey Goodson Jr. Fatal Police Shooting.” KCTV5, December 12, 2020. Net.
Taylor, Lydia and Grieve, Pete. “Shocking" Autopsy Shows Casey Goodson Jr. Shot 6 Times by Ohio Sheriff’s Deputy.” Spectrum News 1, March 19, 2021. Net. https://spectrumnews1.com/oh/columbus/news/2021/03/18/coroner--casey-goodson-jr--shot-6-times-by-franklin-county-sheriff-s-deputy
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