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Even when Black people are rushed to the hospital unconscious in a pandemic, the biggest threat to their lives is still the boys in blue.

Columbus Police cruisers round the Ohio Statehouse interact...

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Miles Jackson needed medical attention when he was found passed out near Mount Carmel St. Ann’s medical center in Westerville, OH and brought to the emergency room. Instead, the AP reports he got tased and shot 20 times by a firing squad of cops from two police departments according to a coroner’s findings.

Jackson had been taken to the hospital just outside Columbus earlier that day on April 12, 2021, and walked away. Westerville police were called when he was brought back after passing out near the hospital parking lot. After a pat-down by Westerville Police Officer Eric Everhart, who had already been called out for sloppy rushed work, Columbus officers arrived because of Jackson’s arrest warrants with the city.

The incompetent cops somehow missed the gun in Jackson’s waist. As usual, the failings of cops became a civilian’s death sentence. Ohio is an open-carry state and Jackson couldn’t help bringing the gun into the hospital if it was already on him when he was returned incapacitated. There was little he could do to prevent the horrifying moments that unfolded when police did another pat-down at his hospital bed and discovered the gun.

“I’m going to comply!” Jackson yelled at the two officers while he’s pinned against the hospital bed. He also complained, “you’re grabbing my balls” and “you’re on my arm,” which seemed to prevent him from putting both arms behind his back like they demanded.

Officer-worn body camera footage shows the search quickly escalate to two officers tasing Jackson as they wrestle him from the bed to the ground. The gun goes off during the struggle and suddenly Jackson is in a stand-off, surrounded by White officers with their guns drawn.

“I’m scared if I move, y’all are going to shoot me,” Jackson said during the agonizing minutes he spent pleading for his life at gunpoint. “My hands are up, sir!” he repeated to the screaming police.

After wrestling two cops, getting tased repeatedly, and possibly getting injured in the process, the hospital bed obscures the full view of the 27-year-old during his final minutes alive.  He can be heard begging officers to be calm, calling them “sir,” and repeating that the gun is down and his hands are up. Another gunshot is heard on the bodycam footage before multiple officers from both Columbus PD and St. Anne’s private security force open fire.

According to Franklin County coroner Dr. Anahi Ortiz‘s report, Jackson sustained 20 gunshot wounds, including to “his left ear, chin, chest, abdomen, buttocks and thighs.” Emergency room staff tried to revive him, but he was pronounced dead at the hospital. You can watch the tragic events unfold on the bodycam footage below.

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Miles Jackson’s unnecessary and violent death is one of many Columbus PD killings in recent years. This is the same police department that basically executed drive-by shootings on 12-year-old Tamir Rice who was playing with a toy gun (IN AN OPEN CARRY STATE!) in 2014 and 16-year-old Ma’khia Bryant who called the cops to help her fend off a crowd gathered outside her house to jump her just a week after Miles Jackson’s killing.

No one else in the hospital was hurt during the shooting. In August of last year, Ohio’s attorney general referred the case to the Franklin County prosecutor. It’s now up to the county to decide whether to press charges against the officers involved.

Our condolences go out to Miles Jackson’s family and loved ones.

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