Deputy fatally shoots teen in courthouse after victim tried to defend mom

Joseph Haynes, 16, and family get into a scuffle with officer before shooting

Jan 18, 2018

On Wednesday, a deputy shot and killed a 16-year-old boy at a Franklin County, Ohio, courthouse in front of the boy’s family.

Joseph Edward Haynes was in court on two delinquency charges when he and his family got into a fight with a deputy.

“At some point, as the hearing was concluding, there was an altercation involving the deputy and some of the family members,” said Franklin County Chief Deputy Rick Minerd. “And what we have learned was the deputy was knocked to the ground as part of that altercation where he came under attack … one shot was fired.”

According to Haynes’ attorney, Jennifer Brisco, the altercation broke out because the deputy had threatened to arrest her client. Haynes had become emotional during the hearing and remained so afterward as well.

“Joseph was a little out of sorts because of how things went at the hearing,” Brisco told The Dispatch. “The officer threatened to lock him up and a scuffle broke out. Joseph was resisting, and that’s when there was a scuffle.”

‘He didn’t have to shoot him’

Geraldine Haynes, Haynes’ grandmother, was there when the fight broke out and was shocked that the deputy used lethal force against her grandson.

“They could have Tased him. He didn’t have to shoot him,” she said.

Geraldine also told The Dispatch that the altercation had started when the deputy put his hands on Haynes’ mother. Haynes shouted for the deputy to “leave my mom alone.”

She went on to describe how the deputy “slung Joey to the ground,” at which point she said her grandson didn’t move and had his hands up.

“All of a sudden he pulled his gun and shot him,” Geraldine Haynes recalled “You could smell the gunpowder.”

“There was no reason why that cop would have been terrified of Joey,” she added.

Keith Ferrell, executive vice president of the Fraternal Order of Police Capital City Lodge No. 9, disputed that account, claiming that Haynes had tried to get the deputy’s weapons. He also claimed that the deputy’s injuries showed that he had no choice but to shoot.

“It was a significant struggle. And his injuries support that,” he said.