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Donovan Lewis

Age : 20

Gender : Male

Race : Black

Date : 08/30/2022

Location : 3200 block of Sullivant Avenue

City : Columbus

County : Franklin

State : Ohio

Agency : Columbus Division of Police

Officer(s) :Ricky Anderson; Chance Knox; Harry Dorsey; Jack Randall; Justin Dodrill

Cause of Death : Gunshot

Event : Killed by police in bed during execution of arrest warrant

OPEN RECORDS SUMMARY :

On 08/30/2022, Columbus Police K-9 Officer Ricky Anderson shot and killed 20-year-old Donovan Lewis while Lewis was in bed inside an apartment on Sullivant Avenue. Police had arrived around 2 a.m. to execute an arrest warrant. Body-camera footage showed Anderson opening Lewis's bedroom door and firing approximately one second later as Lewis began sitting up. Lewis was unarmed. A vape pen was found near him on the bed.
Officers Chance Knox, Harry Dorsey, Jack Randall and Justin Dodrill were also involved in the warrant operation. Police repeatedly knocked and announced themselves at the apartment door before two other men came out and were detained. Lewis remained inside a closed bedroom. Anderson brought his police dog, K-9 Boef, into the apartment as officers prepared to enter the room.
Body-camera footage provides the clearest account of the shooting. Anderson stood at the bedroom door holding the dog on a leash. An officer opened the door, illuminating Lewis in bed. As Lewis began to sit up, an officer yelled "hands." Anderson almost immediately fired one round into Lewis. Police Chief Elaine Bryant initially said Anderson fired when Lewis appeared to raise a hand while holding something. No firearm was subsequently found in the bedroom or apartment.
The shooting happened so rapidly that the family's attorneys later emphasized that Lewis had virtually no opportunity to understand what was happening, much less comply with the command being given as Anderson fired. The family's civil complaint described the interval between the bedroom door opening and Anderson shooting Lewis as less than one second.
After Anderson shot him, police handcuffed the critically wounded Lewis while he remained on the bed. The family's later lawsuit alleged that the officers then failed to provide him immediate medical assistance as required by Columbus's Andre's Law, enacted after Columbus police killed Andre Hill in 2020. Attorneys for Lewis's family alleged that officers instead spent critical time discussing whether Lewis was resisting and did not immediately provide lifesaving care.
Lewis was eventually carried from the apartment and transported to OhioHealth Grant Medical Center, where he died. The Franklin County Coroner determined that the single bullet entered his abdomen, damaged internal organs and lodged in his pelvis, and classified his death as a homicide.
Lewis's death produced immediate protests in Columbus. His mother, Rebecca Duran, and other relatives demanded Anderson be held accountable, while community activists challenged both the shooting itself and the police practice of executing warrants at private residences during the middle of the night.
Lewis was an aspiring musician who recorded under the name "Donovan Dior." His partner, LaTonya Lewis, was pregnant with their child when he was killed. She described him as funny and affectionate and said the two had talked about building a future together while he pursued music and she hoped to start a catering business. Their child would never meet his father.
The circumstances leading police to the apartment also became part of the public discussion because LaTonya Lewis had previously contacted police following an argument with Donovan. She later stressed that whatever had happened between them did not justify police killing him as he awoke in bed.
The killing produced an almost immediate change in Columbus police procedure. Within days, Chief Elaine Bryant ordered that pre-planned arrest warrants for misdemeanor offenses, including domestic violence, and nonviolent felonies generally could no longer be served at private residences between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. without approval from a lieutenant or higher-ranking officer. The policy change did not apply to SWAT or other tactical units and allowed exceptions for dangerous or exigent circumstances.
The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation conducted the criminal investigation and delivered its findings to prosecutors in December 2022.
In February 2023, Lewis's family filed a wrongful-death and civil-rights lawsuit against Anderson and Officers Knox, Dorsey, Randall and Dodrill. The complaint alleged excessive force and asserted that all five officers violated Andre's Law by failing to provide immediate medical assistance after Anderson shot Lewis.
Anderson left the Columbus Division of Police on 03/03/2023. Significantly, the department did not characterize his departure as an ordinary retirement. Columbus announced that Anderson had "retired in bad standing" because of the ongoing criminal and administrative investigations into Lewis's death. That designation prevented him from retaining his police badge and service firearm.
On 08/04/2023, a Franklin County grand jury indicted Anderson for murder and reckless homicide in Lewis's killing. Anderson pleaded not guilty. His defense maintains that he perceived a threat when Lewis moved as the officers entered the bedroom and that his use of deadly force must be evaluated based on what Anderson perceived during the brief encounter.
The criminal prosecution remains unresolved. Anderson's trial has been repeatedly postponed. By March 2026, his defense had requested an eighth continuance, partly because his attorneys were also representing former Franklin County Sheriff's Deputy Jason Meade in the prosecution over the killing of Casey Goodson Jr.
The Meade case concluded with a reckless-homicide conviction in May 2026, but Anderson's case was again delayed. As of the most recent court reporting located in June 2026, Anderson still had not gone to trial, nearly four years after killing Lewis and almost three years after his indictment. A further motion hearing was scheduled for October 2026. He therefore remains charged with murder and reckless homicide, with the charges unresolved as of this update.
The Lewis family also expanded its civil litigation. In April 2024, the family filed another federal action against the City of Columbus and Police Chief Elaine Bryant alleging that Lewis's killing resulted from broader failures within the department, including an alleged culture of excessive force and inadequate accountability.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND:
Ricky Anderson's personnel history is particularly significant. He had been a Columbus police officer since 1991 and had approximately 30 years with the department when he killed Lewis. He worked as a K-9 officer and brought police dog Boef to Lewis's bedroom during the warrant operation.
Anderson had previously been fired by Columbus police in 2004. The firing followed a case in which Anderson was accused of accepting payment for private-duty security work at a bank when he was not actually working the assignment. He had been indicted in 2003 on a theft-in-office allegation, admitted the theft and completed a court diversion program that resulted in the record being cleared. Columbus subsequently terminated him. An arbitrator overturned the firing and reinstated Anderson, determining that a 30-day suspension would have been appropriate instead.
Anderson's disciplinary history extended considerably beyond that incident. His Internal Affairs history showed 10 formal complaints during his career, including a sustained complaint stemming from a 2019 incident. Records reported after Lewis's killing also showed that Anderson had been found out of policy nine times in 58 use-of-force investigations during his career. Those nine findings did not involve firearms.
Lewis's family's subsequent civil complaint described an even broader record, alleging that Anderson accumulated 58 complaints, including use-of-force complaints, during his career and had also been reprimanded for sexual harassment while working as a police officer.
Thus, Anderson's history before Lewis's killing included a theft-related case that resulted in his termination before an arbitrator returned him to the force, multiple internal complaints, repeated findings that his use of force violated policy, and a sexual-harassment reprimand. After shooting the unarmed Lewis in bed, Anderson retired in bad standing and was subsequently indicted for murder and reckless homicide. His criminal prosecution remains pending as of August 2026.
No comparable prior fatal shooting or significant substantiated misconduct record was located for Chance Knox, Harry Dorsey, Jack Randall or Justin Dodrill. None of those four officers fired the shot that killed Lewis.

SOURCE LINKS :

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/black-man-fatally-shot-bed-officers-ohio-police-change-policy-late-nig-rcna47033
https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/01/us/columbus-ohio-police-shooting-donovan-lewis/index.html
https://www.wosu.org/news/2022-09-09/columbus-police-are-changing-when-arrest-warrants-are-served
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/09/05/ohio-shooting-donovan-lewis/
https://www.wosu.org/news/2023-02-16/donovan-lewis-family-sues-columbus-police-officer-who-shot-and-killed-him-four-other-officers
https://abcnews.go.com/US/police-officer-ricky-anderson-charged-murder-shooting-unarmed/story?id=102016997
https://www.wosu.org/news/2023-08-04/former-columbus-police-officer-who-shot-donovan-lewis-charged-with-murder
https://www.wosu.org/news/2023-08-07/retired-columbus-police-officer-who-shot-and-killed-donovan-lewis-pleads-not-guilty-to-murder
https://www.wosu.org/news/2024-04-18/donovan-lewis-family-sues-city-of-columbus-police-chief-alleging-systemic-racism
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/attorneys-former-columbus-officer-accused-120000609.html
https://www.aol.com/articles/case-against-former-columbus-officer-145954000.html
https://www.thechapelofpeace.com/donovan-lewis/