Man killed in home by stray bullet ID’d

Columbus police on Tuesday identified the man found shot to death inside a Hilltop home on Monday morning after a barrage of bullets were fired at a nearby SUV, killing a teenager in the vehicle on his birthday.

Severen T. Clayborn, 33, had been struck and killed by a stray bullet as he slept on a couch inside the house in the 200 block of South Wayne Avenue, police said.

Officers called to the scene around 9:30 a.m. discovered Clayborn after investigators noticed several bullet holes in the front of the home, behind where the SUV was stopped. Officers couldn’t get anyone to come to the door or window, so they forced their way inside and found his body.

Neighbors on Tuesday said police told them the shooting was gang-related and that a semi-automatic weapon was used. However, detectives could not be reached to verify that information.

As many as 30 shots could have been fired at or around the gray SUV, which police suspect was stolen.

Quentin William Smith, who turned 16 on Monday, had been shot while he was a passenger in the SUV at the intersection of South Wayne Avenue and Palmetto Street. Smith fled the vehicle, and a trail of blood led officers to him in a nearby alley. Smith was taken to Mount Carmel West hospital, where he died later that morning, police said.

Police incorrectly reported Smith’s age as 17 in media releases about the shooting.

A brief outdoor vigil and prayer service were held on South Wayne Avenue on Tuesday night, a short distance from the scene of the fatal shootings.

Lisa White-Lavender, Smith’s mother, said her son had done well in the first grading period of his sophomore year at West High School, earning As and Bs.

“He loved football. He could be jokey, jokey. But he was always very respectful to me,” White-Lavender said of her youngest of four children.

Kevin Taylor, 45, was Smith’s youth football coach for four years between ages 10 and 14 in a South Side league. Taylor has coached youth football for 27 years, and his memory of Smith was that he was “one of the most respectful kids I ever had.”

Two neighbors said Tuesday they were ready to move from the Hilltop neighborhood south of West Broad Street.

“Come tax time, I’m out of here,” said Kacie Mitchell, 23, who plans to use her tax return to rent in a safer neighborhood.

She’s lived in an apartment a few houses from where Clayborn died on South Wayne for two years.

Another mother of two in a nearby apartment said she was leaving. She didn’t want her name used because, “I still have to live here until then.”

The two deaths mark Columbus’ 124th and 125th homicide victims this year.