Crime Stoppers seeks help in teen’s homicide
A cash reward is being offered for information leading to an arrest in the shooting death of a 15-year-old Columbus youth in September.
Shortly after 3 p.m. on Sept. 29, Columbus police were called to the 4800 block of Heatherton Drive on the Northeast Side on a report of a shooting.
Responding officers found 15-yearold Dawaun D. Lewis-taylor, who had been shot. Paramedics transported the teenager in critical condition to OhioHealth Grant Medical Center, but he did not survive his injuries.
Police said that immediately after the shooting, a silver Chrysler 300 fled eastbound on Trent Road toward Northtowne Boulevard.
Dawaun was the son of Tarail D. Taylor and the late Dashaundra L. Lewis, and was the oldest of five siblings.
He attended Harambe Christian school, Millennium Middle School and East Bridge Academy of Excellence.
He loved to rap and make music like his late mother, and liked to play basketball. One of his greatest memories was meeting his hero, Blake Griffin, and
Chris Paul, both then with the NBA’S Los Angeles Clippers, his family said in his obituary.
When he was younger, Dawaun was trained in boxing by James Buster Douglas, former world heavyweight champion, through a youth program at the city of Columbus’ Thompson Recreation Center, his family said.
Dawaun worked at Pigs In The City, a trash cleanup, deck building and general contracting company owned and operated by his grandfather, Litt R. Howard Jr., who also is senior pastor of United Word Ministry and who baptized Dawaun.
In addition to his father and his grandfather, Dawaun is survived by his grandmothers, Toni Howard and Pamela Lewis; his five siblings, Da’vier Lewis, Day’ren Lewis, Darren Lewis, Day’zire Lewis and Da’raiha Taylor; and numerous aunts, uncles and cousins and special relatives and friends.
Anyone with information about his homicide is asked to call Central Ohio Crime Stoppers at 614-461-TIPS, provide information at www.stopcrime.org or use the free P3 Tips mobile application.
All tips to Crime Stoppers can be anonymous, and uses a coding system to provide the reward if the information leads to an arrest. bbruner@dispatch.com @bethany_bruner