Girlfriend of Donovan Lewis speaks out for the first time
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- For the first time since Donovan Lewis’ death, his pregnant girlfriend, LaTonya Lewis, is speaking out. Donovan was shot and killed Aug. 30 by a Columbus police officer trying to execute an arrest warrant.
LaTonya said she and Donovan had spent the last year planning their future together. She said she spends every day trying to figure out why this happened and wondering what she could’ve done to save him.
“I was really in love with him,” LaTonya said. LaTonya said the first time she laid eyes on Donovan was the spark that every girl wishes for. She said Donovan was her first love.
“When I walked up to the register, he came up to me and just started talking to me and he just told me he thought I was beautiful,” LaTonya said. She said that spark bloomed into a family with LaTonya's four-year-old daughter, Skylar.
“He just really loved her,” LaTonya said. “He treated her like a stepdaughter. From the very beginning he really cared about my daughter which made me love him even more.”
In July, the couple found out they would be having a baby. More recently, LaTonya found out it is going to be a boy. She said it was a fantasy world until Aug. 30 when police officers went to their home to execute a warrant on charges of domestic violence, assault and improperly handling a firearm. LaTonya said she was at work.
“They were like, 'We have probable cause to believe someone is in there,' and I was like, 'Well what's going on,' and they were like 'If you are in there just say yes or no,' and I was like 'Well I’m not in there, will you tell me what's going on,” LaTonya said.
She said his two friends were also in the house when the police arrived. But, you can see on the body camera footage his two friends leaving the apartment without waking up Donovan. LaTonya said she is confused as to why they did that.
“Yeah, I asked them why they didn’t wake him up and they said they didn’t have time and I'm like you guys did have time to wake him up?”
LaTonya said she got the call from police at 12:31 a.m., and they hung up the phone at 12:38 a.m. Donovan was pronounced dead at 3:19 a.m.
“Everything just happened so fast from the video, so I just don’t even understand,” LaTonya said.
LaTonya did not want to speak about the charges he was facing, just that Donovan didn’t deserve to die.
“It was within one second. They didn’t turn on a light, they didn’t get him off the bed, they shot him and then arrested him. Everything was just backwards,” LaTonya said. “He had a warrant but that doesn’t mean that he should’ve died, he should've been able to go to jail, go to court, be found guilty or not he wasn’t even guilty for the gun charge. They never got to prove whether or not.”
LaTonya said she is planning to name her baby Donovan Jr.
“I just was looking forward to a lot of stuff like we could get through anything and once I found out I was pregnant I just wanted to have a life with him. I didn’t want to do this by myself. I just feel alone,” LaTonya said.
Since Donovan's death, CPD has already made policy changes about when and how they can serve some arrest warrants. The officer who shot Donovan is now on administrative leave. The case is still under investigation by BCI and will be looked over by a civilian review board.