CLEVELAND — Wednesday afternoon, the Cleveland Division of Police responded to reports of shots fired on East 82nd Street and Decker Avenue. Officers quickly found out that the shooting involved a Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) officer who had used his weapon on a suspect, Trayvon Johnson, who the agent says had a firearm.
Less than 24 hours later and within 10 miles of the first incident, Cleveland police officers shot and killed a man near Beachwood Avenue who they say brandished a weapon.
With two major law-enforcement-involved shootings in such a short period of time, many today are asking just how common these types of events are in the Buckeye State.
According to research done by The Washington Post, there have been 177 police shootings recorded in Ohio since 2015, roughly 15 shootings per one million residents.
Data compiled by the Ohio Population Health Alliance in 2020 found that while Ohio was below the U.S. average for fatal police shootings and ranked No. 35 out of 50 for states with the most shootings per capita, Ohio is also home to three of the top 100 counties for police shootings.
Franklin, Cuyahoga, and Hamilton counties each took a spot on the 2020 list, with Franklin County falling in the top 20. The Post also found in their research that Black Americans are disproportionately more likely to be shot and killed by law enforcement than White Americans.
Despite the fact that nearly half of all people shot and killed by police in the United States are white, Black victims are killed by law enforcement at nearly double the rate of White Americans when population size is considered. Lastly, young men are also more likely to be involved in fatal incidents with law enforcement.
95% of all people shot by police are male, according to the Washington Post, with more than half of those deaths being men between the ages of 20 and 40.