CLEVELAND — After nearly eight months since the Nov. 13 shooting death of 19-year-old Arthur Keith, the Ohio Attorney General's Office announced Wednesday that no officers will be indicted in the 2020 incident. The new details were announced during a Wednesday morning press conference.
“This investigation was presented to the grand jury, and the grand jury ultimately felt that officer Griffiths acted reasonably, and therefore there was a no bill to that indictment," said Senior Attorney General Anthony Pearson. "The case was not indicted and none of the officers were indicted for any criminal conduct.”
Pearson noted there were no body cameras that captured the incident -- but there is some footage from that night.
“The aftermath of what happened was captured on video. A camera from the Housing Authority captured, not the shooting, but Mr. Keith falling and officers approaching him at that point in time.”
The deadly shooting involved a Cleveland Metropolitan Housing Authority police officer in the King-Kennedy area.
“CMHA police officers were dispatched there on a report of an individual with a gun," Pearson said. "The person who called 911 had indicated he had seen that person there before on prior occasions shooting off a gun. He was confident that the individual had a gun on that particular day.”
Pearson said one officer found Keith in the back of a vehicle upon their arrival at the scene.
"The officer gives commands for Arthur to drop the gun and get out of the vehicle," Pearson said. "Arthur Keith gets out of the vehicle, turns toward the officer, and according to the officer, points the gun at him. At that point in time, the officer fired four shots. Mr. Keith was struck once, the bullet went from near the back and under his armpit, cut through a rib, his chest area, his heart and a lung and exited out his right chest.”
After he was struck, Pearson said Keith ran a few steps before collapsing. That's when officers found a handgun within arm's reach.
“Mr. Keith’s DNA was on that weapon," Pearson said. "It was on the trigger, the slide and the magazine.”
Pearson said officers performed life-saving measures, but Keith ultimately died from the shooting.
Back in December, Stanley Jackson, an attorney with The Cochran Firm - Cleveland, told the media they planned to conduct their own investigation into the role of CMHA officers in the deadly incident.
"We will be relentless and unrelenting in this case," Jackson stated at the time. "We will find the answers."
The Cochran Firm held another press conference late last year in which they claimed eyewitnesses reported that “Keith was shot in the back as he ran from a CMHA officer after the officer attempted to question him."
Additionally, just moments before the press conference was set to begin, Yost's office issued a press release to announce the Bureau of Criminal Investigation has referred two Central Ohio investigations regarding two deadly officer-involved critical incidents to the Franklin County Prosecuting Attorney.
Here's the information on those cases from Yost's office on those two cases:
On March 8, 2021, a fatal officer-involved critical incident occurred on northbound Interstate 270 on the Walnut Creek Bridge involving Andrew Teague and law enforcement officers from the Columbus Division of Police and the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office.
On April 21, 2021, a fatal officer-involved critical incident occurred at 3171 Legion Lane involving Ma’Khia Bryant and a law enforcement officer from the Columbus Division of Police.
We streamed Yost's press conference live, which you can watch in full below:
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