A former Franklin County sheriff’s deputy has been convicted of reckless homicide for killing 23-year-old Casey Goodson Jr., a Black man who was returning home from a dentist appointment and carrying sandwiches for his grandmother. The verdict follows years of protests, legal delays, and a first trial that ended in a hung jury, turning a single encounter on a Columbus doorstep into a test of how the justice system handles police violence against Black residents.
Jurors rejected the most serious murder charge but found the ex-deputy criminally responsible for firing six shots at Goodson as he tried to enter his family’s home, a decision that now reverberates through debates over policing, race, and accountability in Ohio and beyond.
What happened
The case centers on the fatal shooting of Casey Christopher Goodson Jr. outside his family’s house in Columbus, Ohio. Goodson, who was 23, had just returned from a dental appointment and was carrying a bag of sandwiches for his grandmother when he was confronted by then Franklin County sheriff’s deputy Jason Meade. According to Goodson’s family, he was unlocking the door and holding a bag and his keys when Meade opened fire, striking him multiple times as he tried to enter the home.
Meade was working as part of a United States Marshals Service fugitive task force that day, but Goodson was not the subject of the operation. Authorities later said that Meade reported seeing Goodson wave a gun while driving past officers, then followed him to the house. Family members have consistently said they never saw a weapon in Goodson’s hands at the door, and that he collapsed just inside the threshold in front of loved ones…