Man, woman killed at familiar locations
Deaths occur 17 minutes apart at previous homicide scenes
When Columbus police homicide detectives were called 17 minutes apart to separate crime scenes Sunday night, the locations they were dispatched to were all too familiar to them.
Two unrelated homicides were reported at 11:04 p.m. and 11:21 p.m. at a market and an apartment complex, respectively, where multiple homicides have taken place in 2021.
The first shooting was reported shortly after 11 p.m. at Weber Road Market on the 900 block of East Weber Road in North Linden.
When responding officers arrived at the market, they found a 23-year-old man who had been shot in the face. That victim told officers there were others shot behind the building.
Officers found a 26-year-old man who was critically injured and another male victim who was unresponsive and later pronounced dead at the scene by medics.
The 23-year-old victim was transported to Ohiohealth Riverside Methodist Hospital in stable condition. The 26-year-old victim was taken to Ohiohealth Grant Medical Center in critical condition, but has since been upgraded.
Detectives had not yet identified the homicide victim as of mid-afternoon Monday, pending notification of family.
The male’s death is the second homicide to occur outside the Weber Road Market this year. On March 28, William Gibson, 40, of Milo-grogan, was shot around 4 a.m. outside the market. His death remains unsolved.
Around 11:20 p.m., officers were called to the 2500 block of South Hamilton Road in the Eastland area on the city’s Southeast Side, where 29-yearold Dasia Berry, of the East Side, was found shot inside a vehicle.
Berry was rushed in critical condition to Mount Carmel East Hospital, where she died at 4:53 a.m. Monday.
Columbus police said officers who responded to where Berry was found were directed to the Hartford on the Lake Apartment complex less than a halfmile away off the east side of South Hamilton Road.
In the parking lot in the 4500 bloc of Lakeshore Street South, they found a 39-year-old man who had also been shot. He was taken to Mount Carmel East in stable condition. Detectives say a preliminary investigation shows Berry and the man were together in the apartment complex parking lot when someone began shooting at them.
Hartford on the Lake, located off the east side of South Hamilton Road south of Groves Road and north of Interstate 270, has been the site of two other homicides since Aug. 1.
On Aug. 9, 38-year-old Lamont Wilcoxson was found shot inside an apartment. On Aug. 24, 55-year-old William Harris was found shot multiple times in the parking lot of the complex. Both of those homicides remain unsolved.
There was a non-fatal shooting reported at the complex around 5 p.m. on Sept. 7, as well as a report of a carjacking at gunpoint on Sept. 17. Multiple armed robberies and stolen vehicles have been reported at the complex since July 1.
The Dispatch left a message with the complex management office on Monday for comment that was not returned. The apartment complex, which was built in 1973, is owned by two holding companies with business addresses in Jericho, New York, and Livingston, New Jersey.
Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein’s office said Monday that both the market and the apartment complex are “our radar” for review for possible nuisance action as a public safety hazard because of the repeated homicides and other violence.
“The city attorney’s office currently has a pending liquor objection on Weber Road Market, and in light of the recent homicide, we are evaluating any additional options or remedies for that property,” Meredith Tucker, a spokeswoman for Klein’s office, said in an email.
She did not elaborate on Hartford on the Lake apartments.
The city attorney’s office has filed injunctions against businesses where multiple police runs, shootings and violence have occurred, including Colonial Village apartments on the Near East Side and just last week a Mobil gas station on the South Side.
The two fatal shootings Sunday night bring to 156 the total number of homicides in Columbus as of mid-afternoon Monday.
Anyone with information about any of the homicides is asked to call detectives at 614-645-4730 or Central Ohio Crime Stoppers at 614-461-TIPS. All tips to Crime Stoppers are anonymous.
Bethany Bruner is a reporter covering public safety, breaking news and police. bbruner@dispatch.com @bethany_bruner