City hit with 3 fatal shootings in 5 hours

In a five-hour span Sunday night into Monday morning, three people died from gunshot wounds across different parts of Columbus, bringing the number of city homicides to 45 this year.

Nearly 20 people called 911 about the first fatal shooting that happened just before 10:19 p.m. Sunday in the 1300

block of North 4th Street in Weinland Park. Three people were shot.

Callers told dispatchers anywhere between seven to 30-plus shots were fired. Investigators think there were at least two shooters, said Sgt. Jeff Strayer, supervisor of the third-shift homicide squad.

“I don’t know if somebody got hit,” a woman inside her home told a dispatcher. “We’ve got all our kids laying down on the ground. We could hear (the bullets) hitting the bricks.” She said the children were eating dinner in the kitchen when bullets began flying.

Once officers arrived, they found 34-year-old Thomas Louis Drewry collapsed on a rear porch of a residence. He was taken to Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center, where he died at 12:02 a.m. Monday.

Two others were wounded: Dareckus Taylor, 36, was taken to Wexner Medical Center and listed in stable condition; Gerrell Russell, 32, went to the hospital on his own.

Detectives still were canvassing the area around the first shooting when another shooting report came in about 1:45 a.m. Monday. Officers were called to a house in the 1900 block of Republic Avenue on the city’s Northeast Side.

“They came into the house and shot my friend,” said a man who called from the house. He told dispatchers that his friend, 18-year-old Alexander Joseph Lorms, was shot in the back.

“He’s bleeding a lot,” the man told dispatchers. The shooting occurred inside the house, and there a number of people inside and outside, Sgt. Strayer said.

Medics arrived, but Lorms was pronounced dead at the scene at 1:52 a.m.

A third shooting call went out around 3:01 a.m. Monday in the 1900 block of Olde Coventry Road East on the East Side.

Keon Jerome Mitchell, 25, was taken to OhioHealth Grant Medical Center, where he died at 3:55 a.m.

“Somebody just pulled up on us and just started shooting,” said a man who called 911.

Investigators say the shooting took place near the intersection of Woodcrest and Myers roads.

At the same time last year, there were 29 homicides in Columbus. The 45 homicides this year represent a 55 percent increase.

Anyone with information about the shootings can call the Columbus Homicide Unit at 614645-4730 or Central Ohio Crime Stoppers at 614-461-TIPS.