Port Columbus officers involved in fatal shooting are identified
By Allison Manning & Theodore Decker The Columbus Dispatch
• Thursday January 8, 2015 9:58 PM
The Columbus man who was shot and killed by police at Port Columbus airport yesterday was a 41-year-old with a history of mental illness.
Columbus police said Hashim Hanif Ibn Abdul-Rasheed tried to buy an airline ticket with a woman’s ID before his deadly confrontation with officers.
This afternoon, the three officers involved in the shooting were identified by the Columbus Regional Airport Authority as: Dan Harper, a seven-year veteran of the airport police department; Hussein Hartman, a 15-year veteran; and Ryan Ward, a 12-year police officer who has been at the airport for the last two years.
Abdul-Rasheed spent nearly a dozen years under court supervision in Cuyahoga County after he was charged with attempted murder and was found not guilty by reason of insanity.
About 12:45 p.m. yesterday, as Abdul-Rasheed approached a ticket counter and tried to buy a ticket, airport police officers were at his GMC SUV that was illegally parked near the departures area.
Columbus police said they don’t know what prompted Abdul-Rasheed to arrive at the airport armed, it turned out, with knives.
They said there was no indication that terrorism was involved, despite the shooting occurring on a day when world news was dominated by a deadly terrorist attack at the offices of a French newspaper.
In June 2000, Abdul-Rasheed was found not guilty by reason of insanity on charges of attempted murder, aggravated burglary, aggravated robbery, grand theft and gun possession. Police seized two 9mm handguns, a 5-inch knife and 227 rounds of ammunition.
A judge ruled that Abdul-Rasheed was subject to involuntary hospitalization and ordered him to the maximum-security unit at Twin Valley Psychiatric System in Dayton.
He spent nearly a year there before a judge ruled in March 2001 that he go to Northcoast Behavioral Health System as the least restrictive setting.
He went to a group home under court order in September 2002 and then a halfway house a year later. He moved into his own housing in March 2006 before being released from supervision in December 2012.
Abdul-Rasheed had previously been convicted of felonious assault in Cuyahoga County for stabbing a man in 1995. He received a suspended sentence of five to 10 years and was put on probation.
An Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections spokeswoman said he had never served time in a state prison.
Weiner said police made contact last night with Abdul-Rasheed’s wife, who lives in Columbus.
Jim Shriner, a tow-truck driver who witnessed yesterday’s encounter and largely corroborated the police account, said he was certain of one thing: The man appeared to do everything he could to get himself shot.
“I don’t know how he thought it was going to end,” said Shriner, owner of Broad & James Towing. “I feel horrible that somebody lost their life. At the same time, the officer tells you to stop, it’s time to stop.”
A team of Columbus police homicide detectives that investigates officer-involved shootings was called in by Columbus Regional Airport Authority police to spearhead the probe, which is standard procedure.
Sgt. Rich Weiner, a Columbus Police Division spokesman, gave this account:
The separate calls about the illegally parked SUV and the suspicious man at the ticket counter came in about 12:45 p.m. and quickly merged as Abdul-Rasheed walked up to the vehicle. By then, airport police had called for Shriner’s tow truck to take the SUV from where it was parked, in the area where passengers about to take flights from Port Columbus are being dropped off.
“It looked like a casual encounter at first, and then suddenly (the suspect) produced a knife and lunged at the officer and attempted to stab him,” Weiner said.
Abdul-Rasheed barely missed the officer, who fired a gun multiple times.
Abdul-Rasheed dropped to the ground but got up and came at officers again. Another officer fired multiple times, killing him not far from the north doors to the departures level of the terminal.
A search of his body turned up more knives, Weiner said, although he wouldn’t say how many.
“The officers also discovered items on the suspect which prompted them to contact the Columbus Fire Bomb Squad, which also searched the suspect’s vehicle,” airport officials said in a statement. “Suspicious items were removed from the scene.” Details weren’t released.
Parts of the airport terminal were closed to passengers throughout the afternoon, until the SUV and surrounding area could be searched.
Shriner, the tow-truck driver, said officers already were struggling with the man as he pulled up. He heard two gunshots and saw the man fall and then stand up. Shriner didn’t see a weapon but said the man repeatedly put his hand into his waistband as though reaching for a gun while he closed in on two uniformed officers.
“He came at the officers, kept walking in a confrontational manner toward the officers, backed them up probably about 30 yards,” Shriner said.
Police had their guns drawn and were shouting commands at the man, who was also shouting, Shriner said. He couldn’t hear what the man was saying, but when he backed the officers up to the terminal doors, one officer struck him on his legs with his baton.
Abdul-Rasheed continued to act aggressively and was shot and killed by a third, plainclothes, officer who had arrived, Shriner said. He said there wasn’t much distance between Abdul-Rasheed and the officers at that point. All three officers involved were Airport Authority police. Shriner said the man’s hostility was baffling and, from what he could see, left the officers with no option but to shoot.
“I don’t have any idea why it started, but it should have ended before it did,” he said.
Weiner said investigators will review all available surveillance video, which was not released yesterday.
None of the officers or bystanders was injured, and many travelers in the terminal moved about freely, saying they had no idea what had occurred just outside the airport doors.
Flights were delayed for about 80 minutes while the bomb squad examined the SUV and eventually cleared the scene, said Elaine Roberts, the chief executive officer of the airport authority.
She called the situation unprecedented at Port Columbus.
David Whitaker, vice president of business development and communications for the airport authority, said the man appeared to have acted alone. He said the airport had not received a threat.
Weiner said, “At this point, this is just a violent encounter between an armed man and the officers here.”
Sounds like a wanna-be raghead whack-job who’s been watching the news. What destination was he attempting to reach? That’ll probably tell you all you need to know.