Police use pepper spray after protesters breach headquarters

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Columbus police used pepper spray on a small group of people who briefly breached outer doors Tuesday night at the agency’s downtown headquarters in Ohio’s capital city.

The clash followed a largely peaceful protest downtown earlier in the evening where dozens marched after the fatal police shooting a day earlier of a Black man in a hospital emergency room. One person was taken into custody.

Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther backed the protesters’ cause but denounced the attempt by a few to later enter police headquarters.

“We share the frustrations over police killings of unarmed Black men, and we support nonviolent protests,” Ginther said in a tweet. “That does not include breaking into public buildings or violence against officers. Let me be clear: Violence and destruction will not be tolerated.”

Columbus police said Miles Jackson, 27, was the man killed at Mount Carmel St. Ann’s Hospital in suburban Columbus on Monday.

Immediately after the shooting, Westerville Police Chief Charles Chandler described an “exchange of gunfire” in the emergency room. But a later joint statement from police and the hospital said only that an additional firearm was recovered at the scene.