COLUMBUS – Video released Monday by the Columbus Division of Police shows an officer punching a man who confronted police who were investigating a report of gunshots on the South Side Friday afternoon.
In the 49-minute video, compiled from several cruiser dashboard and body-worn cameras, the officer, identified as Officer Anthony Johnson in a report in The Columbus Dispatch, is shown approaching a man identified by WBNS 10-TV as Jonathan Robinson, who is refusing to comply with an officer’s order to step back at the scene of where shots were reported fired in the 900 block of Heyl Avenue at approximately 4:05 p.m.
Robinson confronts the officer, who stopped a woman carrying two children from stepping onto the curb on the side of the street where officers are investigating the report, and the officer orders Robinson to “get back.”
“Or what?” Robinson replies several times.
The officer identified as Johnson approaches Robinson from the left and pushes him back with his left hand. Robinson yells “Get off my back” and Johnson punches him in the left side of his face with his right hand.
Robinson is thrown to the ground and arrested. An officer is heard on the video saying Robinson suffered a scrape.
Reportedly, the woman was Robinson’s wife and the children were his. Robinson gives his age on the video as 25.
Cell phone video was shared on social media over the weekend of the police response to the incident, division spokeswoman Sgt. Chantay Boxill said.
The Division of Police is conducting an investigation into the incident and Boxill says results of the investigation will be released but, until then police will provide no additional details or make any further comments.