COLUMBUS – A man is dead after being shot by a Columbus police officer in the parking lot of an East Side apartment complex Thursday night.
Officers working in the area of the Amberly Square Apartments at Refugee Road and Brandy Drive at 9:17 p.m. noticed suspicious activity in a vehicle in the parking lot where Deaunte Lamar Bell and another man and a woman were sitting and “initiated a consensual encounter with the occupants of the vehicle,” police spokesman Sgt. David Pelphrey said.
One of the three reportedly made a threatening move and both officer fired their weapons, according to a report by WBNS 10-TV.
Bell was hit and taken to Grant Medical Center where he died at 10:34 p.m., Pelphrey said.
The officers were patrolling the area due to an increase in criminal activity in the vicinity, the television station reported.
Pelphrey says Bell’s handgun was recovered at the scene.
The incident will be investigated by the Critical Incident Response Team, made up of specially trained Homicide Unit investigators, and the findings will be turned over to the division’s Firearms/Police-Involved Death Review Board and command.