Teen killed in reported drive-by

The stunned Somali residents of a Far East Side subdivision gathered behind yellow crime tape Monday as a teenage boy lay dead underneath a white sheet on a driveway.

Mohamed Abdulkadir, 15, had come home from Licking Heights High School and walked over to the house of someone he knew in the Waggoner Grove subdivision, possibly to play basketball, neighbors at the scene who know the youth and the family told The Dispatch.

Columbus police and fire paramedics received an anonymous call at 4:04 p.m. reporting the youth had been shot in a drive-by shooting in the driveway of a home on the 700 block of Churchside Chase Drive at the corner of Wengert Road, said police Lt. Lowell Rector. Wengert Road is located off the west side of North Waggoner Road, behind the Eastpointe Christian Church, in the Blacklick area of Columbus.

When police arrived, Rector said they found Abdulkadir mortally wounded. Whitehall Medics pronounced him dead at 4:19 p.m. He is the 95th homicide victim in the city this year.

Sgt. Stan Latta, the second-shift homicide squad supervisor, said he couldn’t confirm if it was a driveby shooting and wouldn’t answer any other questions regarding the circumstances surrounding the shooting, saying it was too early in the investigation.

Anas Ahmed, 24, said he lives on Oak Orchard Avenue across from the family of Abdulkadir and that his brother was friends with him and a fellow student at Licking Heights High School.

“We don’t know what happened, we’re just all shocked right now,” Ahmed said.

A number of refugees from Somalia have settled in the Waggoner Grove subdivision. “The community here is quiet,” said Abdifatah Farah, 24, noting that people are busy working to make their lives better.

“We don’t have a lot of crime out here,” agreed Mohamed Ali, 23, who has lived in the neighborhood for years. “It’s surprising and it’s a shock to everybody. This is a neighborhood that has a lot of kids.”