Was Donna Castleberry Murdered by Columbus Police?

According to WSYX 6  ABC News (August 23, 2018) A woman was shot multiple times and killed in a police-involved shooting in Franklinton. An officer was also injured when he was stabbed in the hand, according to police.

Authorities say 23-year-old Donna Castleberry was shot multiple times and taken to Grant Medical Center in critical condition. She later died from her injuries. Columbus Police say an altercation occurred when an undercover vice officer attempted to arrest a suspected prostitute in an unmarked Columbus Police vehicle behind an apartment house.

At some point there was an altercation between the two of them and he was stabbed in the hand and he fired multiple times striking her, said a Columbus Police spokesman.
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One might listen to this news report and think that a police office trying to perform an arrest was forced to shoot a suspect when she attacked him with a knife. A sad loss of life, but justified self-defense by the police officer. But there are many on-line comments that take a different view of this shooting...

 

Comments suggest that Ms. Castleberry was trying to protect herself from what she believed to be a kidnapping / abduction because the police officer was undercover (not in uniform), the vehicle was not marked as a police vehicle and no other uniformed officers were present.

 

As we saw yesterday in an unrelated incident, the question was asked:

Was Jeffrey Dennis Murdered by the Philadelphia Police?  Many people see officer involved shootings and police use of deadly force as murder committed by the police.

 

There is a growing mistrust, and even an open hatred, for police in some segments of the population; and that mistrust and hate is spreading into an ever-widening demographic.

 

Nobody yet has all the facts in this case. An investigation will be conducted - and the officer will likely be cleared of any criminal wrong-doing. (A Seattle Times review of 213 fatal encounters with police in Washington state from 2005 to 2014 found only one where a cop was charged. And while these statistics are from WA not OH, the trend is about the same nationally. Most officer involved shooting are found to be justified.)

 

 

 

 (Donna Castleberry was her married name. Born Donna Dalton.)