Deputy Richard Scarborough shot and killed 16-year-old Joseph Haynes. The question is whether the officer’s use of deadly force was justified. (Photo: 10tv)
Newly released video and audio tapes are beginning to shed light on an inexplicable shooting that took place in a Columbus, Ohio, courthouse late last week, local media reports.
According to the sheriff’s office, Deputy Richard Scarborough shot 16-year-old Joseph Haynes during a physical altercation between Scarborough, Haynes, and Haynes’s family. At some point the deputy was knocked to the ground and fired a single gunshot, which hit Haynes in the abdomen.
Scarborough had been working security when he was called into a courtroom to deal with a disturbance during the course of Haynes’s trial.
Haynes was in juvenile court facing two delinquency cases involving guns. He died of his wounds at the hospital later that day.
While the investigation is ongoing, the Columbus CBS affiliate recently published video footage of the hallway outside of the courtroom where the shooting took place. The footage confirms the timeline reported by the sheriff’s office as a group of deputies respond to the initial call for help, and medical personnel follow about ten minutes later.
More interesting is the audio footage also obtained by CBS. Scarborough can be heard calmly calling his partner to “come down here to [courtroom] 56.”
Scarborough: “One to four.”
“Go ahead for Four.”
Scarborough: “Hey come down here to 56.”
“Copy.”
Seconds later, other sheriff’s deputies arrive and begin to call for help with a “Code 10” (officer needs assistance).
“Code 10! 5th floor! courtroom 56! code 10!”
“Male white, shot in the abdomen…Relax. Relax.”
One deputy who is apparently not in the courtroom asks what’s wrong. Another responds, though he must have just arrived on the scene, as he misreports the nature of Haynes’s injury.
“Do you know what’s wrong?”
“Seizure.”
“Seizure.”
“Negative. He was shot! I repeat he was shot in the abdomen. Please send a squad now.”
Finally, the major gets on the radio to ask if the shooter or “suspect” has been taken into custody.
“Do we have a suspect?”
“Affirmed.”
“Do we have him in custody?”
“Police-involved, Major.”
What happened in the courtroom depends on whom you ask. CBS quotes both Haynes’s aunt and Fraternal Order of Police Vice President Keith Ferrell.
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“The deputy grabbed ahold of my sister, and that’s when Joey freaked out,” Haynes’s aunt, who was not in the courtroom, told CBS. “And he told the deputy, ‘Get your hands off my mom, get your hands off my mom.’ Joey didn’t jump on his back or nothing, he just touched him on his shoulder. ‘Get your hands off my mom.’ Well they end up getting into a little struggle, whatever. My mom and my sister was trying to get in to calm Joey down. That’s when the deputy ended up getting knocked down.”
The Fraternal Order of Police tells a very different story:
“(The deputy) responded, came in there, and was violently attacked by multiple people,” Ferrell said. “I was with this deputy. He does have injuries that are visible. I’m not a doctor. But it was very clear to me in my experience that he was attacked. And this was a fight for his life at some point. He was assaulted, and obviously at some point, he felt there was a risk for his life and everyone else in that courtroom.”
CBS reports that once the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigations has completed their investigation a grand jury will determine whether criminal charges will be filed.
The teen that was shot was in court for weapons violations, the officer could have felt that the teen was attempting to disarm him and shoot him. If he is wrestling with the kid, who knows what is going thru the officers mind? Maybe the kid did try to take his gun while the officer was down. If parents raise their kids right, this crap doesn’t happen. People do crappy jobs of raising kids these days, the kids have zero respect for authority. Shootings like this will keep happening until people learn to parent correctly instead of raising hoodlums.
This crap doesn’t happen when people behave like they’re supposed to in court.
The video in the courtroom, as posted here, was not useful for ANYTHING. All it shows is a hysterical lady being escorted as courteously as possible out of a court hallway. The video of the grandmother was useless because she is only repeating what others told her. I really hate videos of people who witness traumatic events because 99% of the time they are too emotional for their descriptions to be useful beyond taking up airtime during newscasts. Most useless of all are interviews with survivors who try to describe air turbulence or railroad crashes; just USELESS blathering.
thats good shooting trooper, but you should have fragged the whole family…
The officer is presumed innocent until proven guilty. The truth will come out, it takes time. It is very unfortunate and sad a young man lost his life in moment(s) of hasty judgement. The one thing important to remember is the fact the officer was summoned to a disturbance in the courtroom. The tape will be methodically revues over and over and witnesses will testify to the best of tear ability.
This is why the 2nd amendment exists. To fight back against a tyrant.
Ok, our LE has made it way to easy to shoot, and the only reason is Improper Training. Blame 99% of these shooting on the Trainers, and of course their Bosses. Go back to training Serve and Protect, Restraint, and even back up and out a little so to give things a chance to settle down. I won’t say if this Cop was right or wrong, but I will say that The Union, most of Them In Blue, and most of them in Government will say the cop did the right thing before they know the truth. Then they will dig in if they figure the cop was wrong. They will run and hide and try to bet this in court. If they win they still will pay out say $500,000 or more to the victims family, and a year or so down the road they will fire this Cop. Sorry, But True, Very Sad. I Hope They See Themselves as it ain’t to late to change The System. Dave
At what point is the fault of pulling a trigger and killing somebody that was never a threat to your life or physical health going to be with the badge-wearing trigger puller?
If you or I (Presuming you are not a sworn officer), we would absolutely be held to account directly and individually.
Is there nothing that those who are given authority and support on use of lethal force, can do before it’s actually, as simple and clear as it looks to the rest of the universe? Or is it always going to be deflected, up until you, or yours are next to have the last thing you see, rage and anger in the eyes, a barrel leveled at your person, and rounds pumped into your body to make you dead dead dead, when the thing, whatever it was that you did in your failure to morph into jellyfish and them transform into gods that qualified for your priceless, irreplaceable life to be taken so utterly cheaply?
It seem strange to me that our police officers never shoot or kill thugs or criminals, it’s always the good boy who has never caused any problems, goes to church, helps old people across the street and is the perfect son and gentleman. It must take police officers weeks to find the perfect saint to shoot or just harasses, I don’t see how they get anything else done
Looks to me like a troubled teen being raised by another low IQ highly emotional single mother who in turn produced a problem child of society. That in no way means I think he should’ve been shot and killed, however, I seriously doubt the officer just woke up that morning thinking today would be his chance to shoot a young man. Come on people, let’s wait till the facts to come out before we rush to conclusions here. There will be an investigation and both parties particulars will be thoroughly brought to light.
Do you what the general procedures and guidelines are when an officer is involved in any shooting? Do they even teach that we are still innocent until proven guilty? Were to also espousing Darren Wlson’s Dept when they spoke for him? FYI, the grand jury went with the facts and declined to prosecute.
Equal protection under the law. Now go straight to hell you demon possessed pervert. You do not get to carry and tell others they cannot, such as in front of a judge.
Why isn’t there security cam footage of the hallway?
Because corrupt officials will be on record of their actions.
Scarborough, you are a cowardly pig and I hope you are sentenced to prison for life and are used and abused daily by real men for the rest of your rotten life. But I know that probably won’t happen because our legal system gives POS like you license to kill. Burn in hell you asshole.
Guilty until proven innocent? Like officer Darren Wilson, who was proven innocent?
If I was a betting man I would bet you and everyone that’s so sure the police officer is at fault has criminal record
Are you even here legally Chavoto?
The first video doesn’t show squat and the second video only shows the grandmother’s rendition of the altercation, which so far, to me, sounds believable.
Read the story again. The aunt wasn’t in the courtroom, yet she talks as if she is an eye witness. Her statement is hearsay, inre inadmissible.
Well, except for the part she leaves out about the cop getting knocked down, then shooting the teen. She’s pulling the BLM “Hands up don’t shoot” mantra. Poor Joey was laying on the ground with his hands up, and the cop stood over him and shot him. In a court room. Yeah, right. Somehow, I doubt it.
I totally agree, and find that most of the other commentators here are seemingly quite gullible to the fact that folks lie so smoothly and easily about such things. If it happened like “granny” said… well, it didn’t happen like good ole granny said, it’s pretty easy to tell a pathological liar when you see them. People just don’t get shot by cops for no reason, they just don’t.
Get over yourself!
You, sir, are an asshole.
Who are you referring to?
Anytime that you start to fight a police officer, you will get hurt in some way. Sometimes seriously!
Andy, what an idiotic comment. “Anytime”. Get a clue and get a job.
Looks like we saved some tax payers some money. Another model teen and some great parenting.
John: In the overall scheme of life, you sir, are correct. Humanity is not as much in need of protection from a ‘survival of the species’ point of view; IMHO, the crowd needs quite a bit of thinning out.
I’m sure Joey was a good boy who sang in the church choir and volunteered for Meals on Wheels…just like Brownie in Ferguson
Anytime a police union is making statements you know it is nothing but lies.
Well, that is a broad assumption. I would note that the Aunt quoted in the story here was NOT in the courtroom (per the story) and a 16 year old that is in a courtroom certainly justifies the belief he is a juvenile delinquent (it is an assumption but no more a stretch than your assumption the police are lying because the Union sent a speaker) plus – and I admit this is bias or stereotyping – look at the kid, does that kid look like a model citizen? NO! If he came onto my property I would immediately be on the defensive and if that is stereotyping so be it. There is a reason we associate certain appearances with criminal actions/juvenile delinquency. Furthermore, EVERYONE has his/her own perspective but eye witnesses have proven time and time again to be the least reliable evidence. There are volumes written and classes taught in Police academies, colleges, and law schools about “perception bias” and “influenced eyewitness testimony”. Finally, I am a divorce and custody lawyer and can tell you first hand, absolutely any testimony by a family member is suspect. I am not saying the family lies, rather it is all about perception. Ask yourself, would your own child ever do something stupid like attack an armed cop? I am willing to bet the answer is “no”. Now, imagine if you can, your child is accused of being stupid, can you be objective or will your trust and belief in your child color what you believe you saw? Then apply that to the grandmother her reports in a calm tone how her family was doing absolutely nothing wrong, she makes it sound like a routine day at the grocery store as if a Judge saying come back and see me next week is an everyday occurrence. She then reports her daughter only wanted her stuff and the Deputy for no reason whatsoever won’t let her and told her to leave a public building. REALLY! You are being kicked out of a public building for NO REASON? Think about it.
Police academies — no such thing — diploma mills — yes.
These people are marginal high school graduates or GEDs at best.
gotta love dipshit uneducated clueless shitheads like this Andy dufuss dude,not a clue,,wasn;t there,,but still can spew anti-police horseshit,loosen that tinfoil hat,it\’s restricting the bloodflow to your pea brain,
Patriot you are an idiot and a sheep! You call someone else uneducated but you can’t form a complete sentence to save your life! Go ahead and believe everything some mouthpiece for the union tells you.