Bodycam shows Columbus police shoot man during attempted Home Depot arrest
GROVE CITY, Ohio (WCMH) - Columbus police released body camera footage on Tuesday that showed SWAT officers fatally shooting a man at a Grove City Home Depot.
The SWAT team was serving an arrest warrant on Bret Andrews, 46, who had been accused of raping a minor in Athens in 2021. Three different bodycam videos captured around 8:30 p.m. on Saturday showed different perspectives of what happened during the attempted arrest at the hardware store at 1680 Stringtown Road.
Viewers may find the footage in the video player below disturbing.
The Columbus Division of Police also provided an explanation that walked through the body camera footage recorded by SWAT Gold Team members James Ashenhurst, Robert Cutshall and Matthew Liford.
Police said the SWAT team used multiple cruisers to surround the car Andrews was inside of to prevent him from escaping, and a front cruiser activated its blue and red lights. SWAT team members got out of their cars and then yelled, "Get your hands up," at Andrews. Multiple officers then said they saw him "reaching."
About one second after Liford -- who was behind the suspect's car -- is heard saying Andrews was reaching for something in his bodycam video, another officer fired the first shot, and Liford followed suit with an additional three shots.
Columbus police only released body camera footage from Cutshall -- the officer standing on the driver's side in front of Andrews' car and directly facing him -- showing the moments after the shooting. However, multiple bullet holes are visible in the car's front windshield, and Cutshall was still pointing his gun directly at Andrews in the released video.
"He still has the gun next to his right hand," Cutshall said.
Ashenhurst -- who was also in front of Andrews' car on the passenger side -- then kicked out the glass in the passenger side window before opening the door and removed what Cutshall said was a gun. Columbus police later confirmed it as a firearm.
The video showed two officers remove Andrews from the car. Another officer then placed the driver of the car, who Columbus police said was removed safely and without injury, in handcuffs. Staff at Grant Medical Center pronounced Andrews dead around 8:53 p.m. the same night.