The Killed-A-Woman Shuffle
The story about the pedestrian struck and killed by a private vehicle owned by a 20-year veteran of the force keeps getting weirder and weirder.
Last Friday, The Rooster analyzed a bizarre story involving a young woman being struck and killed in the early hours of Wednesday morning by a vehicle owned by Demetrius Ortega, a 20-year veteran of the Columbus Division of Police.
We learned from from Columbus Dispatch reporter Bethany Bruner, one of the CDP’s most trusted stenographers, that Ortega was a passenger in the vehicle:
However, Ortega was a passenger and not the driver of the vehicle involved, one of the sources said.
Columbus police said a woman who was on foot was struck by the vehicle. She was pronounced dead at 2:49 a.m. Wednesday. Her name has not yet been released, pending notification of her family. A Columbus police crash report was still not available Thursday.
That before the victim was even publicly identified, Ortega was “relieved of duty,” which is the police’s politically correct way of saying “placed on indefinite paid vacation, effective immediately.”
The victim, by the way, was 26-year-old Naimo Mahdi Abdirahman.
This week, The Dispatch doubled down on Ortega being in the passenger seat:
Ortega, who has been with the Columbus Division of Police since 2002, is the registered owner of the 2022 Kia Sorento involved in the crash, The Dispatch previously reported from sources. However, Ortega was off-duty and a passenger in the vehicle and was not driving at the time of the crash, a source told the newspaper.
But from there, shit gets weird. Reporter Cole Brehens shifts into passive voice mode when he cites a “a press release issued Monday” — by whom? the police? — shifting the narrative entirely:
But according to a press release issued Monday, police responded around 2:40 a.m. Wednesday to a report that Abdirahman was attempting to cross Morse Road when she was struck by an eastbound vehicle.
The female driver of the vehicle briefly stopped, and a male passenger got out to check the condition of Abdirahman. The male "appeared distraught" and reportedly told the witnesses to call the police, the release states.
The female driver continued eastbound on Morse after the man got out, then she turned onto Malin Street and returned westbound on a service road that runs in front of businesses on the south side of the road, parallel to eastbound Morse Road. She picked up the male passenger, and the pair then fled the scene, police said.
That the release notes the male “appeared distraught” and they know the exact path the vehicle fled before returning to scoop the male before fleeing the scene again let’s you know there are many more witnesses and/or surveillance tapes of the incident than police investigators knew about when they leaked to their mules in the press that the 20-year police officer was the passenger, not a driver.
But now, Ortega has been downgraded to a “distraught male” who was so horrified by the accident he told bystanders to call the police, only to hop back into the murder weapon and drive into the night with the suspect.
This is speculation on my part: But it sure looks like a woman, with whom Ortega was romantically involved, killed a woman. He got out to check the damage, realized the severity of the crash and the woman driver peeled away, only to come back to get him and flee the scene for the final time.
I think Ortega refused to talk to investigators. After all, sitting in the passenger seat of a car while the driver kills someone is no crime. And if it is, it’s peanuts to the crimes committed by Columbus police officers in a daily basis.
No, I think Ortega refused to talk because it’s a wife, girlfriend, daughter, mistress, or even mother or sister — somebody he deeply cares about was was driving his car while he was riding shotgun, likely drunk. Them fleeing together from a fatal accident is a crime, and this one apparently has multiple witnesses.
For some reason, the family of the victim doesn’t think police are playing straight with them:
Salma Shire said she feels like Columbus police are not providing routine information to the family about her cousin's death.
"It just seems extremely disrespectful to the family, someone who just lost a close loved one," Salma Shire said. "Just there to be any withholding of information, especially to the ones closest to her."
They are withholding evidence. Look no further than Sgt. James Fuqua, the CDP’s professional liar who was probably the one that leaked Ortega was riding shotgun in the accident in the firet place, try to walk it all back:
He said his media release Monday was based on preliminary eyewitness reports, but was "poorly written" and had led some people to mistakenly assume that police had identified suspects.
“That does not mean (Ortega) wasn't involved. He could be, we just don't know,” Fuqua said.
It’s been over a week since the crash. We know Ortega was involved because you idiots leaked that to Bethany Bruner! Now you’re trying to gaslight us into thinking that information came out of some “poorly written” report instead of directly from the police department.
“That does not mean Oretega was involved.”
Please. We’re not that dumb. But they are if this is their best defense so far.
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