COLUMBUS – Columbus police have identified the five officers involved in the fatal shooting of a suspect at a North Side hotel Wednesday and have released the name of the dead man, who was wanted by Worthington police.
Sergeant David Gitlitz, Ofc. Alexander Stallings, Ofc. Matthew Carroll, all five-year veterans of the Patrol Bureau; Ofc. Jeffrey Lincoln, a four-year-veteran of the Patrol Bureau, and Ofc. Austin Endsley, who joined the Division of Police last December and is assigned to the Training Bureau, opened fire when Montae Shackleford shot at them during a confrontation at the Americas Best Value Inn on Sinclair Road, police spokesman Sgt. Rich Weiner said.
Shackleford, 28, who died later at Grant Medical Center, was wanted for abduction by Worthington Police, Weiner said.
The name of an officer who was treated at Riverside Methodist Hospital was not released.
Officers dispatched to the Sinclair Road Office Park at 4:33 p.m. on a report that a man with a gun was arguing with another man and that one of the men was seen at the hotel.
While looking for that suspect, the officers learned that a man staying in a room at the hotel was possibly wanted for kidnapping, Weiner said.
A witness at the scene says the officers were met with gunfire shortly after trying to make contact with Shackleford and they returned fire, Weiner said.