Teen among 3 dead in 3 shootings in 1 day

Columbus police responded to three fatal shootings on Saturday.

At 9:30 p.m., officers were called to the 2200 block of Gerbert Road in South Linden on a report of a shooting, and 15-yearold Marcus Peters was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

Police said that a drive-by shooting had occurred at the same location on July 5.

Police also said that several fights broke out overnight among a crowd that arrived at the scene as police investigated Peters’ slaying, and that gunshots were fired. Officers were not aware of any injuries from these later gunshots, they said early Sunday.

Elsewhere in Columbus on Saturday, officers were called at 11:23 p.m. to the 1100 block of Mccarley Drive East just off Clime Road on the West Side, where they found a 25-year-old man who had been shot several times in the upper body.

Robert Thomas Bedard was taken to Ohiohealth Grant Medical Center, where he died at 1:23 a.m. Sunday.

Earlier on Saturday, a 23-year-old woman died after she was shot Downtown.

Dariene Smith was one of three people struck by gunfire that erupted shortly before 2:30 a.m. in the area of School and Spruce streets, police said.

Smith, who had been hit in the back, showed up at Ohiohealth Rehabilitation Hospital shortly after the shooting and was transferred to Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, where she died at 9:28 a.m., police said.

A witness told police that the shooting occurred after a fight involving two males broke out.

The two other people shot were expected to survive.

The killings of Smith, Peters and Bedard are the city’s 65th, 66th and 67th homicides this year.

Anyone with information about any of these shootings is asked to call the Homicide Unit at 614-645-4730, or leave an anonymous tip with Central Ohio Crime Stoppers at 614-461-8477.