A veteran police officer in Columbus, Ohio, is accused of kidnapping women he arrested and demanding sex acts in exchange for their freedom – and he is also under investigation for the fatal shooting of a young woman in a prostitution bust.
WBNS reports that Andrew Mitchell, a vice detective with the Columbus Police Department, was arrested on Monday for allegations that he arrested multiple women and held them against their will, and demanded they engage in sexual acts before he would release them.
The news station reportedly obtained the indictment, handed down by a grand jury, which accuses Mitchell of kidnapping women on three separate occasions between the summer of 2017 and the the summer of 2018, and transporting them to an unspecified location where he forced them to engage in sex acts in order to be freed.
Mitchell is also accused of lying to the the FBI, when he reportedly claimed in September 2018 that he had never had sex with a prostitute.
The charges come amid an investigation into a fatal police-involved shooting in which Mitchell reportedly shot Donna Castleberry, 23, during a prostitution bust in August 2018. According to WBNS, Columbus police said that Castleberry attacked Mitchell with a knife before he shot her three times.
Mitchell, who was placed on leave during the shooting investigation, declined to comment to the news station.