Polaris shooting suspects arrested in Georgia
Two Columbus-area men suspected of exchanging gunfire on March 3 inside the Polaris Fashion Place have been arrested by U.S. Marshals in Georgia.
Anthony Deshawn Truss Jr., 21, and Levon Sommerville, 25, were both taken into custody this month in Georgia cities within 40 miles of each other. The U.S. Marshals Service announced the men's arrest 40 days after the shooting at the Delaware County mall.
Truss, of Reynoldsburg, was arrested on April 7 in Covington, Georgia while Sommerville, of Columbus' Northeast Side, was arrested Monday in Tucker, Georgia, according to the U.S. Marshals Service.
Columbus police had issued warrants for both men's arrest on a charge of felonious assault after they identified the men as the two suspects who shot at each other inside on the first floor of the mall.
The shootout occurred after the two got into an argument inside the Carter's/osh Kosh B'gosh store around 12:30 p.m. March 3, Columbus police have said. Somerville is suspected of firing inside the store at Truss at close range before departing. Truss then followed Sommerville out into the mall and fired at Sommerville as he walked away, police said.
No one was struck by gunfire or otherwise injured in the shooting.
Following the shooting, Columbus police indicated that they knew the identities of the gunmen and advised that they turn themselves in. But police soon asked the public's help in identifying the suspects with the release of surveillance images of the shooting.
Truss was the first to be identified publicly by police on March 8, five days after the shooting. Columbus police identified Sommerville as the second suspect involved on March 12.
Once investigators determined that Truss and Sommerville had most likely fled Ohio, a multi-agency fugitive task force — the Southern Ohio Fugitive Apprehension Strike Team — led by U.S. Marshals began searching for the two suspects at the request of the Columbus Division of Police. The task force includes Columbus police, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Ohio Attorney General Bureau of Criminal Investigation, and both the Franklin and Delaware county's sheriffs' offices.
Within two weeks of the shooting, ATF announced the offer of a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrests and convictions of Truss and Sommerville.
The March 3 shooting was the first of what would be two incidents of gunfire erupting inside the mall within two weeks.
Twelve days later on March 15, police were once again called to Polaris Fashion Place when several people called 911 to report hearing multiple gunshots ringing out within the mall. Police later determined that the shooting, which occurred around 3:15 that day, stemmed from a confrontation between two groups of young people in a first-floor atrium area inside the mall.
Arshad Jamir Lawson, 20, of the East Side, was arrested that same week on a charge of felonious assault and is being held at the Franklin County jail.
No one was struck in that incident either, although one person's jacket was grazed, police said.
elagatta@dispatch.com