Columbus police Chief Elaine Bryant is defending her division’s handling of an internal investigation after her first assistant chief left a division-issued gun in a public restroom — and Bryant told a local radio station that officers leaving firearms behind happens more often than the public might think, The Columbus Dispatch reported.
First Assistant Chief LaShanna Potts left her division-issued firearm in a first-floor restroom of the Charles D. Shipley Building, 1970 W. Broad St., on Nov. 3, the police division previously said, according to The Columbus Dispatch. The building houses the Ohio Department of Public Safety headquarters, including the Ohio State Highway Patrol.
“She walked into the building, she went and had her meeting,” Bryant said in an interview that aired Nov. 12 on WZCB-FM 106.7 The Beat, The Columbus Dispatch reported. “She went into the restroom, she inadvertently left her firearm in the restroom. When she realized she left it, she immediately went back within 30 minutes.” Bryant spoke on “The City Show,” an afternoon program on the station, the Dispatch reported.
Bryant said Potts has not spoken publicly about the incident because it remains under investigation, but that she has taken accountability, The Columbus Dispatch reported. “Let’s be clear: We’re not dodging accountability,” Bryant said, according to the Dispatch. “She’s not dodging accountability.”
Bryant also put the incident in the context of a large agency. “Just to put it in context, you would be surprised,” Bryant said, according to The Columbus Dispatch. “We’re talking about an agency … of over 2,000 employees. You’d be surprised how often this happens.”
The investigation remains ongoing, and Potts is performing her duties as normal, police spokesperson Sgt. James Fuqua said, according to The Columbus Dispatch. Fuqua directed a question from the Dispatch about how often officers have left guns unattended in 2026 to the division’s public records unit and declined to comment further on the investigation, the Dispatch reported. The Dispatch also has requested Potts’ personnel file and any disciplinary records, as it generally does for officers under investigation.
The local police union president offered a different sense of how common such an incident is. Fraternal Order of Police Capital City Lodge No. 9 President Brian Steel told The Columbus Dispatch that in his 10 years involved in disciplinary proceedings and grievances as a union member, this is the first time he has heard of a gun being left unattended. Steel told the Dispatch he has seen about five or 10 cases in which guns were stolen or accessed by the public, typically stolen from vehicles.
Discipline, Steel told The Columbus Dispatch, would typically be a written reprimand for leaving a gun unattended or having it stolen, though it depends on the case. Because the Shipley Building restroom appears to have been publicly accessible — though Bryant said it was in a secure building — Potts may face more serious punishment than she would have for leaving the gun in an employee restroom at a police station, and she might be held to a higher standard than a rookie officer given her position, Steel told the Dispatch. “We’re all held to a standard, but the higher you go, the longer you’re on, the more is expected of you,” Steel said, according to the Dispatch.
The case has also drawn criticism online, The Columbus Dispatch reported. Ken Kuebler, a retired deputy chief who left the division in 2023, criticized the division on X for not placing Potts on leave, pointing to the case of Deputy Chief Elrico Alli, who spent several months relieved of duty after Potts accused him of lying during an investigation into an officer’s conduct, the Dispatch reported. Alli was not disciplined after an investigation found he did not lie but had incorrect information, according to the Dispatch.
Potts has also received public support. Mothers of Murdered Columbus Children, an advocacy and support group made up of family members of homicide victims, posted on Facebook in her support, The Columbus Dispatch reported, writing that through their work together they had come to know a leader whose commitment to Columbus is rooted in compassion and service.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on
What is confirmed, from the division’s own earlier statement and the reporting above: the gun was left in the Shipley Building restroom on Nov. 3 and recovered after Potts returned within about 30 minutes; an internal investigation is ongoing; and Potts remains on normal duty. What is not yet known: how often Columbus officers have left firearms unattended in 2026 — the division referred that question to its public records unit — what discipline, if any, Potts will face, and what her personnel and disciplinary records show. The incident lands in a busy public-safety season for City Hall, where the mayor’s proposed spending plan is also moving through council review, as NewsForce247 reported in our story on the $1.3 billion budget, and where homicide investigations continue, including our report on a murder charge in a Nov. 6 shooting.
What happens next is the completion of the internal investigation. The division has announced no timeline for a decision, and any discipline will be Potts’ first public accounting of the incident; NewsForce247 will update this story when the investigation concludes or the requested records are released.
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