The family of Marchelle Freeman has filed a lawsuit against the Columbus Division of Police, arguing that officers overlooked one warning sign after another before she was fatally shot in her Driving Park home. Freeman, 60, was found with a gunshot wound inside a residence in March 2024, and her relatives say a long trail of domestic-violence calls should have signaled escalating danger. Their complaint seeks both money damages and a public reckoning over how the city handles threats inside the home.
According to The Columbus Dispatch, the lawsuit lays out multiple 911 calls, police visits and reported threats involving Freeman and a man identified in court records as Stewart Butler in the months leading up to the March 21, 2024 shooting on the 1700 block of East Sycamore Street. Family members told reporters they warned officers again and again about what they saw as a pattern of confrontations that was getting worse. The filing names the Columbus Division of Police and several officers, and it asks a judge to order the release of internal records and response logs tied to those prior calls.
Butler, 64, was arrested at the scene and initially charged with murder. He later pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and, according to WCMH/NBC4 via Yahoo, received a prison sentence of roughly 14 to 19½ years. The plea included a firearm specification that added time to his term, and earlier coverage described the shooting as stemming from a late-night argument. Court records cited by local outlets state that officers found Freeman with a gunshot wound and that she was later pronounced dead.
The lawsuit arrives amid wider debate over policing and liability in Columbus. Axios reported that the city paid more than $21 million between 2018 and 2023 to settle claims involving the Columbus Division of Police, a total that reform advocates frequently point to when arguing the system needs an overhaul. Attorneys for Freeman’s family say her case shows how what some officers might view as "routine" domestic calls can turn deadly when early warning signs are not taken seriously.
What the Lawsuit Says
The complaint, as described by The Columbus Dispatch, seeks access to 911 recordings, body-camera footage and internal logs that the family’s lawyers say will show officers were repeatedly put on notice about threats to Freeman. The suit alleges negligence by individual officers along with broader failures in how the department tracks, flags and follows up on domestic-violence reports. If a judge allows broad discovery, the family’s attorneys say those internal documents could shed light on whether official policies and real-world practices contributed to the fatal outcome.
Legal Stakes and Next Steps
Civil cases like this typically move slowly, with months of document exchanges, sworn depositions and legal motions before any settlement talks or trial. Much of this one is expected to hinge on what internal records reveal about the timing and substance of calls to police, which officers were dispatched and what follow-up, if any, actually occurred. For Freeman’s relatives, the lawsuit is not just about a financial award. They are pushing to put the department’s handling of domestic-violence warnings under a microscope and to force a public accounting of how and why those alleged red flags were missed.
