A former Ohio sheriff’s deputy was indicted on murder charges Thursday in the fatal shooting of a 23-year-old Black man last year that led to large-scale protests against police brutality.
Franklin County Sheriff’s Deputy Jason Meade shot and killed Casey Goodson Jr. in Columbus on December 4,2020, as Goodson was trying to enter his home with a Subway sandwich. A grand jury indicted Meade, a 17-year veteran of the sheriff’s office, on two counts of murder and one count of reckless homicide in the shooting. Meade was working for the US Marshals Service Fugitive Task Force looking for violent offenders at the time, Columbus police have said, adding Goodson was not the person being sought by the task force. The US Marshal for the Southern District of Ohio told reporters last year 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 before the man “allegedly started to pull a gun and the officer fired,” Peter Tobin said. Columbus police have said Meade reported seeing a man during the time of the task force operation in the city and was investigating the situation when reportedly there was a verbal exchange between Goodson and the deputy. Goodson was a concealed carry permit holder in Ohio and was legally armed at the time of the shooting, according to police. Meade left the sheriff’s office in July on disability retirement, Franklin County Sheriff Dallas Baldwin said in a statement. Baldwin released a statement after the grand jury indicted Meade, saying he has “reminded my staff that while everyone is presumed innocent until proven guilty, the standards for being a Franklin County Sheriff’s Deputy must be even higher than that of our criminal justice system.
