COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — The officer left hospitalized after a bank robbery, chase on I-70 and subsequent shooting is now leaving that hospital 20 days later.
The Columbus Division of Police officer, who has yet to be identified since the shooting, has been recovering at Grant Medical Center since July 6. Multiple law enforcement officials surrounded the entrance to the hospital on Wednesday, waiting to applaud him as he was taken away in a transport vehicle.
The shootout that left him injured also left one of three robbery suspects — 19-year-old Abdisamad Ismail — dead, while the other two led police on a manhunt.
Those two suspects, 23-year-old Faisal M. Darod and 20-year-old Aden Abdullahi Jama, remained at large for nearly 15 hours, according to Columbus police. They said the incident began with one member of the group stealing a Porsche from a dealership in Whitehall before joining the other two suspects to rob a Fifth Third Bank in the 2400 block of Hilliard Rome Road.
After the armed robbery, multiple law enforcement agencies followed the stolen Porsche to I-70 near West Mound Street, where the deadly shooting ultimately took place. Investigators would later find Darod outside his home on July 7, while the U.S. Marshals said they found Jama trying to flee the country the next day at Chicago O’Hare International Airport.
In court proceedings on Tuesday, both Darod and Jama pleaded not guilty to aiding and abetting bank robbery, and the use of a firearm in a violent crime.