Police ID victims in Hilltop triple shooting

Columbus police have identified the victims of a triple shooting Saturday afternoon on the Hilltop that killed two people and left a third seriously injured.

Police were called about 3 p.m. to the 500 block of South Wheatland Avenue, where they found Rianne Dotson, 34, who was shot in the face.

Dotson told police that she and two others had been shot inside a nearby home.

Officers checking the home found Lionel Adams, 60, and Candace Carr, 41, dead there in different rooms, police Lt. Dan Hargus told The Dispatch.

Dotson was taken to Ohiohealth Grant Medical Center in critical condition.

Police remained at the Wheatland Avenue house overnight and into Sunday morning.

They did not reveal possible motives for the shootings.

The deaths are the 109th and 110th homicides of 2020. The city already has surpassed the 104 total homicides for all of last year and is on a deadly pace to surpass Columbus’ record of 143 homicides in 2017.

Saturday afternoon’s violence on the Hilltop was reported minutes after a gunshot victim from a Sept. 7 shooting just a block down the street died at the hospital.

Lorenzo Reynolds, 18, had remained hospitalized at Grant Medical Center since that shooting, which was discovered by police when the city’s Shotspotter system picked up gunfire in the area of the 400 block of South Wheatland Avenue.

Reynolds died at 2:53 p.m. Saturday, making him the 108th homicide victim in Columbus this year. Police did not indicate that there was any connection between the Sept. 7 shooting and the triple shooting that occurred Saturday.

Anyone with information about either shooting is asked to call Columbus police homicide detectives at 614-6454730 or Central Ohio Crime Stoppers at 614-461-TIPS. tdecker@dispatch.com @Theodore_decker