Ohio Officer Hit By SUV, Suspect Shot And Killed

The man shot and killed by police yesterday was no angel, his family members said.

But they are trying to figure out how an attempted theft of an auto part on the East Side could have resulted in Michael J. Kelly's death.

"It's not like he was harming or causing damage to anyone," said George Kelly, 59, Michael Kelly's uncle.

Columbus police say it wasn't the theft but the threat to officers once they confronted Kelly that led to the shooting, the second one involving officers this week.

Kelly, 36, of 2009 Minnesota Ave. on the Northeast Side, had been under surveillance for months by Columbus police's auto-theft unit, said Sgt. Todd Anderson of the property-crimes bureau.

About 3:45 a.m., two undercover officers found Kelly trying to steal a catalytic converter from a vehicle in the parking lot of the Automotive and Truck Services warehouse, 2892 E. 14th Ave.

The two officers identified themselves and tried to arrest the man, according to Sgt. Rich Weiner, a police spokesman. Kelly ran to a nearby vehicle and tried to drive away.

As he drove, he hit an officer, who landed on the vehicle's hood, according to Weiner. Both officers fired multiple shots as Kelly continued to drive with the officer on the hood.

One of the officers called 911 just after the shooting to request medics. He said that a suspect had hit his partner with a car, and they had both fired at the driver.

Medics pronounced Kelly dead at the scene.

According to Franklin County court records, Kelly was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to attempted burglary in 1994. He was sentenced to one year in prison after pleading guilty to theft in 2008.

He faced a number of other charges of theft, criminal damaging, possession of criminal tools and resisting arrest in the past seven years. At the time of his death, he was under indictment on three felony counts of drug possession.

Kelly was the neighborhood mechanic, said Dakota George, 19, a cousin. Whenever anyone had a problem with a car, they took it to Kelly. He worked on them outside the house where he grew up and lived.

He used the money he made from neighborhood jobs to support his two sons, said George Kelly, the uncle. Those jobs had dried up recently.

Family said that they don't condone what police said Michael Kelly did, but they also don't condone what police did.

"Why did they have to use force like that?" asked Brinda Kelly, 57, Michael Kelly's mother.

Dispatch reporter Kathy Lynn Gray contributed to this story.

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