Ohio Protest

Hundreds in Ohio Protest Somali's Shooting
By ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS, Associated Press Writer

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Somali immigrants upset over the fatal police shooting of a man they say had mental health problems rallied Friday in protest, questioning the decision to use deadly force.

A crowd that Columbus police estimated in the hundreds alternated between standing in front of City Hall and marching around two city blocks chanting and yelling, "We want justice!"

Protesters held signs with statements such as, "Nasir Abdi needed medication, not a bullet."

Nasir Abdi, 23, was shot Wednesday as four Franklin County deputies tried to take him back to a mental hospital where he had been force-fed medications. Columbus police detectives said Abdi had threatened them with a kitchen knife with a 6-inch blade.

But Somali leaders said witnesses to the shooting never saw a knife in Abdi's hands.

"What we need is the facts to come out, and we want justice to be served," said Liibaan Ismail of Columbus, a spokesman for the protesters gathered outside City Hall.

Bashir Mohamud, a 23-year-old Ohio State University student, said he came to the protest because he didn't think Abdi had to die.

"The police just shot him without reason. I believe they could have saved him instead of killing him," said Mohamud, who came to Columbus from Somalia about three years ago.

Sheriff Jim Karnes said Friday that his office was familiar with Abdi and his mental health problems, though the deputy who shot him was probably not. Nevertheless, he said, his officers know their responsibilities.

"They know what they have to do to protect themselves and the public," he said.

Karnes said his officers have taken only the minimum training in dealing with mentally ill suspects required by the state.

"Unless it's mandated by the state, we probably don't have enough time or money to do it," Karnes said. "Training costs money."

Crisis training is a priority for a state Supreme Court committee studying the mentally ill and the court system.

Such training is voluntary for police departments in Ohio, though a growing number are taking advantage of it.

"You can't deal with a mentally ill person like you can with a person who is rational," state Supreme Court Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton said Friday. "They don't think the same way. They're in a delusion."