The Ohio sheriff’s deputy who shot and killed 23-year-old Casey Goodson Jr. on December 4 was also a pastor who two years earlier bragged to a congregation about being able to “hunt people,” the Columbus Free Press reported and The Washington Post confirmed.
“I work for the sheriff’s office. . . . I hunt people — it’s a great job, I love it,” Jason Meade told attendees at a 2018 convention of the Ohio State Association of Free Will Baptists. “I worked this job 14 years, you know I ain’t never been hit clean in the face one time? It’s a fact. It ain’t ’cause I’m so good. . . . You know why? I learned long ago I gotta throw the first punch. And I learned long ago why I’m justified in throwing the first punch. Don’t look up here like, ‘Oh, police brutality.’ People I hit you wish you could hit, trust me.”
Goodson was not a suspect or the focus of an investigation but Meade shot him reportedly for waving a gun from his car, the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office alleged in a statement. Local activists, however, are questioning the official account of what happened, relying in part on statements from the victim's family that Goodson was shot three times in the back while carrying a Subway sandwich. He had just returned home from a dentist appointment, the family said.
Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio’s 3rd Congressional District, has been an outspoken advocate for justice in Goodson’s death. When she heard Meade’s remarks, she told the Post: “That’s very different from my religion. Can you equate ‘hit first’ with ‘shoot first’? I don’t know. But the fact that he’s boasting about that kind of mind-set is very troubling.”
Meade, an Iraq War veteran who started his work with the sheriff's office in 2003, is a pastor at Rosedale Free Will Baptist Church, which is about 30 miles west of Columbus. Before launching into the confession of his true belief system, Meade earlier confessed to another Baptist congregation: “I’m not politically correct. Do I need to throw that out? Full disclosure: if you’re looking for PC you got the wrong one.”
Listen to Meade’s complete remarks.
Meade went on to paint police as David and victims of police brutality as Goliath in a twisted interpretation of the popular biblical story of David and Goliath, in which a young man slays the great warrior Goliath with a slingshot and a rock. The story is often used to demonstrate how faith can make the seemingly impossible possible, but Meade’s takeaway seemed to be that David won because he took the first shot.
His arguments are similar to those he made during an interview with the sheriff’s office also in 2018. “There is times for righteous release,” Meade said. “That’s what I call when we have a use of force… We don’t go around looking for it, because we don’t have to. Plenty of people out there will give you that opportunity. So we don’t have to be bullies going looking for it. That’s why I say it’s a righteous release. There is release in our job that righteously we can actually have a use of force.”
He went on to say: “And I’ve had people who say ‘how can you hurt someone, Jesus said turn the other cheek’ and I say read your Bible. He ain’t talking about physically getting slapped in the side of the face.”
“When he’s saying that it’s in offense to his name. Hold on, am I suffering from crime and criminals in the name of Jesus?” Meade added. “No, this isn’t his namesake so that’s why we take the bible out of context and we take service out of context. Like you can’t be a man and be a Christian? Jesus was the manliest man in the history of mankind.”
City of Grace Church Pastor Michael Young, who counseled members of Goodson’s family following his death, condemned Meade’s remarks in an interview with the Post. “This is a man who was called to protect and serve who’s talking like that,” Young said. “He’s using the platform of the pulpit to teach and preach things that are contrary to scripture.”
Goodson’s death has attracted national attention. Comedian D.L. Hughley commented on initial details released in the case earlier this month on his radio show. “I can tell you that it sounds all too familiar,” he said. “I can tell you that a young man who had a right to carry a weapon who was certified to carry one was murdered by a group of police officers looking for criminals in the area.
“I can tell you that he was not one of the people that they were looking for. I can tell you that the time of his death he had a Subway sandwich in his hand and his keys were in the apartment door. So I don’t know how exactly a bigger threat you can be with a Subway sandwich in one hand or keys or the other, but I can tell you it sounds familiar.“