1 dead, 1 critical after North Linden shooting

fired.

A gold colored Mercedes Benz, with the two shooting victims inside, ended up a couple of streets over in the 2500 block of Grasmere Road.

The man was dead in the passenger seat of the car. It is the city’s 70th homicide this year.

The woman was transported in critical condition to OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital, Columbus police said. A bullet went through her shoulder and she was also struck in both hands and her left hip, according to a radio transmission.

Yvonne Terrell is the paternal grandmother of the 20- year- old woman who was wounded. She asked that her granddaughter’s name not be released. She understood that the man who died is her 19- year- old boyfriend.

After the shooting occurred on Loretta Avenue, Terrell said her granddaughter apparently drove about a quartermile to in front of her maternal grandmother’s house on Grasmere Road.

A woman on Loretta Avenue, who would not give her name, said the North Linden neighborhood has become a dangerous place in recent weeks.

She said she heard that there was an argument and multiple shots fired. Police had set out at least 11 orange cones over shell casings on Loretta Avenue.

During the early morning hours of July 4, a 9- year- old girl had a bullet glance off her face while she was sleeping in her nearby Republic Avenue house.

The woman said there was also a shooting on Loretta Avenue last week.

“A couple of days ago, we had somebody tell us to keep our kids inside because there was going to be a shootout,” the woman said.

It didn’t occur as promised. “This is a very bad neighborhood,” she said.

Rick Schmidt, 62, has lived on Grasmere Road for 35 years. He was in the backyard when he heard the barrage of shots echoing from a couple of streets over.

“By the time I got out here ( in the front yard), the police were here,” Schmidt said.

Usually, Schmidt said, his street tends to be quiet.

But incidents like this one, he said, leave him concerned — especially when he has his grandchildren visit.

“Bullets have no name,” he said.