Reality of violence touches once-rural district
A gunshot reverberated in the suburban neighborhood at 4 p.m., a short time after Licking Heights School District buses had dropped off scores of children on the humid summer afternoon last Sept. 18.
Mohamed Abdulkadir, 15, lay dying in a front yard on Churchside Chapel Road.
The shocking kind of crime that all too often occurs in some Columbus neighborhoods had come to the predominantly Somali neighborhood off of Waggoner Road on the Far East Side.
It set an unsettling tone for the school year for the Licking Heights district, said Superintendent Philip Wagner.
As the school year ends, the case remains unsolved by Columbus police homicide detectives. Initial reports were that it was a drive-by shooting. Columbus Police Sgt. Stan Latta, second-shift homicide supervisor, has not answered any questions about the case.
Moments before his death, Abdulkadir talked on the phone with his father, Mohamed Omar, about going to the library. Omar said he later learned that his son was curious about rumors of a fight at the high school earlier in the day and went to talk with an acquaintance about it at a house on the 700 Churchside Chapel Drive. Wagner acknowledged there was some sort of altercation, though not involving Abdulkadir.
One 911 call from a man named Ali said he had been talking with Abdulkadir only moments before in the front yard. Ali told the dispatcher he had left the scene and didn’t see what happened next but heard the shot. When talking with the 911 operator, Ali pleaded for paramedics to get there.
But it was too late. A single gunshot fired from indeterminate range had gone through the back of Abdulkadir’s head and out his mouth, a Franklin County coroner’s autopsy later determined.
As Abdulkadir started the school year, he was on intensive probation by the Franklin County Juvenile Court. In June 2017, he had been found delinquent on two counts of robbery and receiving stolen property. Abdulkadir participated with two others in using a BB gun to demand money and cigars from a Turkey Hill convenience store clerk at 1953 Morse Road on March 11, 2017, court records show.
It has been difficult for the 56-year-old Omar, his wife and their five surviving children to cope with the loss. Yet, Omar said they are leaning on their Muslim faith to get them through.
“I wish the person who did it will come out and say, ‘I did it’ and ask for forgiveness,” Omar said. “I wouldn’t hesitate to forgive them if the person came forward honestly and were straightforward.”
The shooting shook the neighborhood. Parents of more than 100 students, most of them Somalis, refused to send their children to school for about a week after the killing, Omar said.
But Omar said he advised people to send their children back to their classrooms.
“I say my son is already gone, you can do nothing. We don’t want an issue,” Omar said.
Omar said he doesn’t believe there are racial issues at Licking Heights schools, and he said that he appreciates how the district handled the tragedy and extended condolences to him and his family.
Students organized a candlelight vigil for Abdulkadir, and counseling and support services have been offered during the school year, Wagner said. In a lot of ways, though, the Licking Heights community is still grieving.
“These issues are complicated,” Wagner said. “People look for a one-sentence answer or a quick fix. A lot of times, it’s just more reflective of the change in the fabric of a growing community like this.”