WHITEHALL, Ohio - Gary Parsley says the shooting that happened on Chandler Drive in Whitehall, Friday afternoon, happened in an instant.

“Everything happened really fast,” he said.

Parsley says a Columbus Police Officer came to his house to follow up on a hit-and-skip case Parsley says he was a victim of two weeks ago. He says when the officer stepped outside - a woman, two houses down, came running out and pleading for help.

“She was wanting medical attention for her sister,” Parsley said. “That’s why she called the guy over there.”

Parsley went back inside his house. A few seconds later he heard the gunshot.

“I did hear the gunshot – it was very loud,” he said. “At first I thought maybe he’d shot the dog, because she was saying something about ‘Why would you try to shoot the dog?’ and he said something like the dog was attacking him, or something like that. Then, she started saying ‘You shot my kid!’.”

According to CPD, when the officer approached the house the family’s dog charged him.

“The officer fires one shot at the dog, misses the dog and accidentally shoots a four-year-old in the leg,” CPD spokeswoman, Denise Alex-Bouzounis, said.

Parsley says neighbors called 911. Police and first responders were there within minutes.

“They brought the girl out,” he said. “She wasn’t on a stretcher. One of the paramedics was carrying her. She had a blanket around her and there was a little bit of blood on the blanket, but she seemed to be conscious. Her head was poking around [and] she wasn’t, like, screaming or crying that I could tell.”

Parsley doesn’t understand why the officer felt the need to shoot in the first place.

“[The officer] was a big guy and they have tasers and clubs and stuff,” he said. “I don’t know why you would raise a gun. I really don’t agree with him just pulling his gun out and trying to shoot the dog.”

According to Alex-Bouzounis, when asked about the breed of the dog, she says it was a mutt and would not specify on its size.

The child was taken to Nationwide Children’s Hospital and is expected to recover. CPD continues to investigate the shooting and Alex-Bouzounis says the officer that was involved is being questioned.

According to court documents obtained by BuzzFeed’s Stephanie McNeal, the city of Cleveland, Ohio is claiming that 12-year-old Tamir Rice’s death — as well as the pain and suffering caused to his family by it — was his own fault.

Tamir Rice was shot and killed while playing with a replica gun in a park last November. Rice had been playing with the replica in the park when rookie Officer Timothy Loehmann and his partner pulled up in a police cruiser and, within two seconds, shot him dead.

The incident was captured on video, but neither Officer Loehmann nor his partner knew that when they gave investigators their initial statements, in which they claimed that Rice was with a group of young boys and was waving the gun around with the intention of shooting someone.


The investigation was transferred from the Cleveland Police Department to the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department after Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson said it required “an extra layer of separation and impartiality.”

Rice’s family filed a lawsuit against the city in December, and then another in January after hiring a new set of lawyers.

According to court documents obtained by BuzzFeed’s Stephanie McNeal, the city of Cleveland, Ohio is claiming that 12-year-old Tamir Rice’s death — as well as the pain and suffering caused to his family by it — was his own fault.

Tamir Rice was shot and killed while playing with a replica gun in a park last November. Rice had been playing with the replica in the park when rookie Officer Timothy Loehmann and his partner pulled up in a police cruiser and, within two seconds, shot him dead.

The incident was captured on video, but neither Officer Loehmann nor his partner knew that when they gave investigators their initial statements, in which they claimed that Rice was with a group of young boys and was waving the gun around with the intention of shooting someone.


The investigation was transferred from the Cleveland Police Department to the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department after Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson said it required “an extra layer of separation and impartiality.”

Rice’s family filed a lawsuit against the city in December, and then another in January after hiring a new set of lawyers.