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A6 U.S. NEWS
Friday 18 august 2017
Columbus officer who shot 13-year-old boy feared gunfight

By ANDREW HUGGINS When Tyre pulled out the tests, including disruptions
Associated Press gun and Mason saw the la- at Columbus City Council
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — ser sight, “I believed he was meetings. It added to a list
The white Ohio police of- going to shoot me, and I of killings of black males by
ficer who fatally shot a fired my gun at him,” Ma- police in Ohio and other
black 13-year-old boy after son said in his statement. states that have attracted
a suspected robbery last He said he never consid- national attention.
year feared a “gun fight” ered the gun wasn’t real. In May, a grand jury voted
with the teen, who the of- Police later determined the not to indict Mason in the
ficer said pulled a gun from gun was inoperable be- September 2016 shooting.
his pants, records show. cause it lacked a propel- A message was left with
Columbus police Officer lant cartridge and could the officer through the lo-
Bryan Mason fired when only have fired a BB if it cal police union.
he saw a laser sight on the was held upside down, re- “Mason was within policy
weapon, which turned out cords show. Attorneys rep- and did everything right
to be a BB gun, Mason said resenting the boy’s family that day,” Jason Pappas,
in a formal statement and criticized the report Thurs- president of the Fraternal
interview with detectives day, calling it incomplete Order of Police Capital City
obtained by The Associat- and minimal. They say wit- Lodge No. 9, told the AP on
ed Press through a records nesses tell a different story Thursday.
request. Law enforcement of events that night and an Mason was involved in
officials previously had investigation continues. three previous shootings,
described the encounter, “It is clear that the Colum- including one that was fa-
but the records obtained bus Division of Police has ei- tal, and was cleared of
by the AP reveal Mason’s ther an inability to hold Of- wrongdoing each time.
firsthand account of what ficer Mason accountable Mason’s personnel file is full
happened. for his use of force against of commendations. He re-
Tyre King refused to com- This June 22, 2015, photo provided by the Columbus, Ohio, Divi- citizens, or no interest in mains with the city police
ply with Mason’s com- sion of Police shows the division’s official portrait of Columbus, doing so,” said attorneys department.
mands to “get down” Ohio, police officer Bryan Mason. Mason, who fatally shot Tyre Sean Walton and Chanda Tyre was in a group of
and tugged on his gun in King, a black 13-year-old boy after a suspected robbery last Brown. young men who had
his waistband a couple of year feared a gunfight with the teen, who the officer said pulled Columbus police declined robbed a man of $10 at
times as if it were caught a gun from his pants, records show. to comment, citing pos- gunpoint, according to po-
on something, Mason said (Columbus Division of Police via AP, File) sible litigation. lice accounts of the Sept.
in the statement. and his continuing at- he was going to engage The shooting was a flash- 14 robbery in the city’s Old
The teen’s “refusal to com- tempts to pull the gun out, me in a gun fight,” Mason point in and around Co- Towne East neighborhood
ply with my commands caused me to believe that said. lumbus and spurred pro- east of downtown.q