WASHINGTON (Xinhua) – The funeral has been set for Donovan Lewis, an unarmed African American man killed by a police officer of Columbus in the U.S. state of Ohio several days ago.
Lewis was shot and killed in bed by Ricky Anderson early Tuesday morning while Anderson and two other police officers served a felony warrant at an apartment.
A local funeral home announced on Friday that Lewis, 20, will be laid to rest on Sept. 10.
“Donovan was asleep before police officers arrived and had no warning,” family attorney Rex Elliott said. “Officer Anderson opened the door and almost immediately fired a shot into the bedroom as Donovan was trying to get out of the bed.”
Anderson, a 30-year veteran assigned to the canine unit, fired less than one second after he opened the door to a bedroom that Lewis was inside of, body camera video showed.
Officers rendered aid to Lewis until medics arrived and transported him to the hospital where he was pronounced deceased shortly later.
The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation is investigating the shooting.
Meanwhile, People took the streets in Columbus, Ohio, to protest the killing.
Protesters, including family members, friends, and community members of Lewis, rallied in the Columbus Division of Police Headquarters on Friday to demand justice for him and other Black victims of police brutality.
Racism and racial profiling targeting African-Americans are endemic in the United States. According to U.S. Justice Department statistics, Black people have been more twice more likely than white people to experience threats or uses of force during police encounters, and three times more likely to be jailed if arrested. In 2020, they were 93 percent more likely to be victims of hate crime.
In April, an annual report by the National Urban League on the state of Black America revealed that the quality of life for Black people continued to slip compared to whites.
Demonstrations against deadly police violence and racial injustice have been frequently taking place in the U.S. in the past few years.