Former Ohio police officer indicted in death of Donovan Lewis

A grand jury indicted former Columbus, Ohio, police officer Ricky Anderson Friday for murder and reckless homicide in the 2022 death of Donovan Lewis, court records show.

Anderson, a 30-year veteran of the Columbus Division of Police who was assigned to the K9 unit, shot Lewis, 20, an unarmed Black man, in bed on August 30, 2022, around 2 a.m. while uniformed officers were serving a felony warrant for domestic violence and assault and improper handling of a firearm. The warrant was being served on Lewis, police previously indicated.

"To be clear, we fully anticipated this - with the grand jury process being under the dominion and control of the Special Prosecutors," Anderson's attorneys Mark C. Collins and Kaitlyn C. Stephens said in a statement to CNN. "This case is not about if Ricky Anderson made the decision to use deadly force, but why he made the decision to use deadly force. As we progress through litigation, the evidence will show that it was because he was justified in doing so."

During a news conference in 2022, Columbus Police Chief Elaine Bryant showed video frame-by-frame asserting that the moment Anderson opened fire it appeared Lewis was holding "something" in his hand. Bryant then said a vape pen was found next to Lewis.

"We are relieved that a grand jury concluded what we've known all along: Officer Ricky Anderson broke the law when he shot and killed an unarmed Donovan Lewis as he laid in his bed. CPD bodycam video showed this clearly and nothing has changed in almost a year," Rex Elliott and Michael Wright, attorneys for Rebecca Duran, the mother of Donovan Lewis, said in a statement Friday. "Although Mr. Lewis' family is pleased that his killer will soon face a jury of his peers, they are incredibly disappointed that it took so long to come to this conclusion in the first place."

Lewis' killing came amid other deadly police encounters with Black Americans that sparked protests nationwide, including in Columbus, where a series of killings by law enforcement have happened since 2020.

In response to Anderson's indictment Friday, the Fraternal Order of Police issued the following statement: